Managing Leadership^®

Fables. It’s not enough just to learn from experience – you might arrive at the wrong lesson, or learn it too quickly. Recall Mark Twain‘s story about the cat jumping on the hot stove: it probably won’t jump on a hot stove again, but it probably won’t jump on a cold one, either.

On the other hand, consider a recent editorial cartoon from the WSJ: three scientists were peering into a culture dish, and one announced that they hadn’t succeeded in producing life, but they did seem to have created a kind of glue, or varnish, or something.

As they say, good judgment comes from experience, which comes from bad judgment. Don’t be too sure which stage you’re in at any given time, in any given area.

And, while you should set your sights high, you shouldn’t ignore what you are achieving while your capabilities do not yet match your ambitions.

When we’re young, we all think we have nine lives. But if we simply collect experiences without analyzing and drawing the right lessons from them, then we’re just running our balance down. On the other hand, if we don’t give ourselves a break now and then, we’ll never venture the risk that generates experience.

First impressions may need re-evaluation; blink again. And what you manage to pull off may turn out to be as or more valuable than what you intended. Try. Pay attention. Try again. Then pay attention again.

Random Fact #6: I’m curious. (No, not odd or peculiar – just curious.)

Of course, that’s not all that unusual. But the thing is that last week’s random facts were all negatively expressed. This week I wanted them to be positive statements, and – more or less – the converse of the first four.

So what I’m really trying to say is that although I’ve learned that I’m not an idea man, I have also noticed over the years what seems to be a sort of compensating curiosity.

Now, I have had plenty of my own ideas, and some of them have been real doozies (or, so I’m told). But usually, my relationship with ideas consists in my trying to help others produce them, and then catching the good ones before they get away.

The way I try to do that is by noticing things – anomalies, but especially connections, and their nature – and then asking questions. The hard part is asking them in ways that generate helpful answers, or additional helpful questions.

I’m curious about that process, too.

Any ideas?

Today’s link goes to Mike Sansone, who authors ConverStations.

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