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In This Issue: July'04
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I've
spent much of June on vacation,
travelling back to Australia to see my family
and friends, as well as seeing parts of
the country I've never seen before. It was
a wonderful trip. Both my brothers had their
first children last year, so I got to flex
some avuncular muscle. I won the family
pool playing competition. I lost an arm
wrestle to my 66 year old dad. And I was
blissfully reminded that in some parts of
the world you can go swimming in the ocean
in the middle of the winter!
Thank you for reading Outside the Lines.
As ever, please forward it (in its entirety
please, using the link at the end of the
newsletter) to anyone else you think might
be interested. This community grows with
your help. As a thank you, I'll donate 10
cents for every subscriber to Nature Conservancy
Canada.
Michael Bungay Stanier
Principal, Box of Crayons
Occam's
razor
William of Occam was an English philosopher
and theologian from the early 14th century.
His work was part of the movement from medieval
to modern thought, not least because he based
scientific knowledge on his experience and
self-evident truths - and the logical propositions
resulting from those two sources.
His influence today is found in the principle
of Occam's razor. It posits that if there
is more than one possible theory in answer
to a challenge, it is the simplest one that
will be true. A similar (and surely related)
principle was enunciated by Buckminster Fuller,
who said "When working on a problem ...
if the solution is not beautiful, I know it
is wrong"
Most of us are losing a battle against the
needlessly complicated and busy. In organizations,
bureaucracies and meetings and endless PowerPoint
documents seem to predominate. In our personal
lives there is clutter accumulating in all
sorts of physical, mental and spiritual corners.
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
Leonardo di Vinci
One solution, created by the British audio
retailer Richer Sounds, is a Cut the Crap
Committee. A group of the best employees regularly
meet to hunt out and destroy bureaucracy,
waste and excess. They know that, unnecessary
complexity and confusion arises as a matter
of course, and that the challenge is to be
vigilant and to continue questioning the way
things are done.
Action:
Look around your desk, your day, your life
right now. What would your personal Cut the
Crap committee be focusing their attention
on? What's dragging you down? What are you
tolerating? What's one thing that, when got
rid of, would make your life simpler?
But don't forget Einstein's warning that "things
should be as simple as possible, but no simpler."
There's beauty too in complexity. One need
only think about great wine, great literature,
great conversations to understand the pleasure
complexity can bring. Fractals, those endlessly
repeating patterns, often capture some of
that beauty for me. (Check out http://www.fractalus.com/contest98/winners.htm
to see the winners of the fractal art competition).
So balance these twin and seemingly contradictory
goals: savouring the complex while moving
towards simplicity. And here's the quote that
makes me laugh most when thinking about these
challenges: "For every problem, there
is one solution which is simple, neat and
wrong." Henry Mencken
Brand
new
What do you stand for? And who cares? What
are the secrets to a great brand for you
and your business? Learn about the "Brand
Onion" and the three mistakes people
make with branding in my recently published
article in Choice magazine. You can download
it free here.
I'll be presenting a workshop on branding
- The Branding Point. The Fusion of Passion
(Yours) and Desire (Theirs) - with Rosemary
Davies-Janes at the ICF International Conference
in Quebec City, November 4 - 6. I'd love
to see you there! Information about the
ICF Conference is at www.coachfederation.org.
Subscribe to Choice at www.choice-online.com
Snakes
When I was in Australia, I visited my brother
Gus and his family. They live and work at
Ngukurr, an aboriginal community in Arnhem
Land in the north of Australia. It's beautiful
and remote countryside, three hours drive
from Katherine, the nearest town. At night,
because there's no ambient light around,
the stars cover the sky from horizon to
horizon.
Gus is a teacher, and we got to see him
and the school in action. Our final day
there coincided with the last day of school,
and we attended the outdoor assembly. Lots
of the kids and many of the adults were
gathered for dancing and presentations -
a celebration of the term just passed and
the ensuing holidays. Suddenly, in the middle
of one of the segments, half the kids vanished
down the hill. Someone had found a snake,
and everyone rushed down to kill it. At
the appropriate moment - after the snake
had been killed, of course - a teacher rounded
up the kids from the momentary distraction
and the assembly continued.
Action:
What's distracting you right now? Is it
dangerous? Do you need to take action? Or
is it a false alarm? And what are you being
distracted from?
(Give yourself three minutes right now -
0.2% of your day - to properly engage with
these questions. It can be so easy to skip
over them.)
"When it is dark enough, you can
see the stars." Charles A. Beard
Michael Bungay Stanier is a certified coach,
consultant, trainer and speaker. He works
with people, teams and organizations to
have more impact and have more fun. You
can find out all about it at www.boxofcrayons.biz
or you can just contact him directly at
Michael@BoxOfCrayons.biz
or +1 (416) 532-1322.
Outside the Lines is distributed on the
2nd Thursday of every month. Subscribe at
www.boxofcrayons.biz.
Your contact information is never traded,
never rented, never sold. All writing (c)
Box of Crayons 2004. Box of Crayons is a
registered trading name of Maida CC Inc.
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