Image via Wikipedia
We went to the movies over the weekend and saw “Unknown.” It’s an interesting film in many ways although it won’t be up for Best Picture next year. Like me, it’s entertaining for the most part!
I bring this up because there’s a great visual at one point. Imagine yourself in a forest (birch trees in the movie) and you’re walking. The trees are somewhat impenetrable – a solid wall with very few gaps in between. As you move forward, suddenly the trees line up – they’re in perfect rows. You realize that you’re actually in a forest which has been planted by man and what seemed so impenetrable a moment before was, in fact, very accommodating as long as you found the point where everything lines up. Isn’t that an executive’s job?
We all tend to get caught up in the moment, focused on the individual trees of business. We forget sometimes that moving from our current position can often change our perspective enough to make solutions available which might not have seemed so before. It’s not so much being able to distinguish the forest from the trees as it is being able to navigate one’s way around the trees and get through the forest.
Issues – people, budgets, negotiating points – are those trees in our daily lives. Maybe we should be thinking about them from a different place? I think that’s a leader’s job: change the perspective for the organization so solutions are obvious and everyone can move forward. That means bringing in some powerful phrases such as “What if…” and “Can we try…”.
As U2 say, many of us get stuck in a moment and we can’t get out of it. The trees are a wall. Getting bosses, peers, and subordinates to move enough to change their views – to get “unstuck” – is hard. So is changing your own perspective. Then again, that’s why they call it work.
What trees are you seeing today? How can I help navigate through them?
Consult Keith 