Ice is slippery.  Nearly everyone forced to cross an icy patch unconsciously pulls their shoulders up and stomach in, tentatively stepping forward, often holding their breath. 

This is precisely the wrong thing to do.  First, you’re lifting your center of gravity, making you more likely to topple.  Second, you’re starting to limit the contact of your soles with the ice – which is all that matters.

You’re much more stable on icy surfaces if you think and act “down” rather than “up.”  Imagine there is a heavy weight attached to your hips, pulling you downward.  Relax your shoulders.  Let your stomach settle.  Breathe in and out slowly.  The common advice “walk like a penguin” gets people to imitate this “thinking down” approach.

Martial artists and some yogis take this even further, consciously “sending” their energy down through the ice.  They focus on the solid ground beneath the ice, not on the surface layer. This gives them strong rootedness and stability even in uncertain situations. 

“Thinking down” applies to leadership, as well.  Act counter to your instincts when it helps you move more safely.  Press into difficulties rather than pulling up and away from them.  Choose your focus beyond the hazardous slickness.   Pause a moment and strengthen your rootedness before you go into that difficult conversation. 

“Thinking down” requires some practice, because it feels quite unnatural at first.  Try it. Feel the experience of the greater connectedness and confidence.  You’ll find many situations to apply this strategy.  

I’m here to set you on the path to solving hard problems.  (Sorry, the easy problems have already been solved.)

The primary strategy to solving many complex challenges we face today is to assume an “outsider” view to discover the deep lever points.  Let me unpack this idea.

An insider view only sees the deep rabbit holes and complicated interactions that were built over time.  The insider view despairs at seeing a solution, in part because inevitably the solution will require breaking something about the current systems.  Breaking something means someone loses, therefore the insider view unconsciously shies away from those ideas.  The insider view defaults to saying, “It’s so complicated it can’t be fixed.”  Therefore, the insider view cannot imagine enough of a necessary change.

The nature of systems is 80/20; small factors have disproportionately large effects in what the system produces.  It takes careful digging and deep thinking to find the true levers at the heart of complex systems.  Only the dispassionately detached can execute the thorough examination.  (This is a good time for me to again recommend Peter Senge’s book, “The Fifth Discipline.”)  This is a hunt for root causes and assumptions so deep that people have forgotten to question them.

If there were a specific formula, I wouldn’t give it to you; I’d charge big $$ for a limited license!  In short, there is no precise formula or protocol.  I’m inviting you to the adventure of the hard work. 

Let’s look at an example:  The US health insurance system.  Horribly complex.  Many participants, many stakeholders, massive cash flow, inequities, regulations, sincere workers, desperate patients, political angles, a black hole which absorbs efforts to improve it. 

About thirty years ago, an outsider to the system named Paul Zane Pilzer proposed a solution:

Give individual citizens the same tax break on health care costs that corporations get. 

Today only groups can purchase health insurance cheaply, because they get a tax break do so.  The insurance companies get between the health care providers and the patients, with the full regulatory power of the government backing the system – this distorts any hope of transparent costs, undermines every incentive for efficiency, and makes free-market competition nearly impossible.

When you give an individual citizen a tax break for health insurance, then the insurance market would rapidly respond to offer whatever package individuals would be willing to purchase.  It’s not hard to imagine Walmart and Amazon getting into the insurance business.  You would see rapid downward pressure on pricing and incentives for quality that kept customers from switching to another provider.  Though not guaranteed to provide health care for everyone, inevitably health care would be like technology, getting simultaneously better and cheaper every year. 

I acknowledge that many of the existing jobs associated with health insurance would disappear, or no longer pay well.  Existing companies would either transform or go out of business.  A powerful deep lever like tax breaks for individuals would be catastrophic for some in the first few years.  These stakeholders are well-connected, have deep lobbying capabilities, and would resist the change.

Therefore, learn from this example.  Identifying a deep lever to solve a hard problem is the entry point to the next hard problem: Implementation.

The purpose of a well is to provide consistent access to clean water.  A dry well is worthless.  No one favors muddy water.

People dug wells in the clay bottoms of West Virginia. You only needed to dig down 30-40 feet to get to the permanent water table, just below layers of sandstone.  They lined the soft clay walls of the well with blocks of sandstone for two reasons.  The stone structure kept the red clay walls from collapsing in.  The sandstone also filtered the water and kept it clean. 

This well design paradigm is a good model: A structure which provides access and preserves the essential quality.

• A business develops processes with operational excellence to ensure quality and quantity of output at a profit
• Family relationships establish rules and disciplined behavior to produce generations of new children and adults
• A city operates under laws to protect liberty
• A church relies on the authority of Scripture to help people experience God without veering into error

We need structures to ensure the best of life is available to others and to preserve it.  

A vital, strong Christian needs both devotional time and study time. They are distinct.

The purpose of a morning devotion time is to reconnect with the living God, the Author and Perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). You must discover what practices are helpful to you in this. For myself, the most reliable approach is this sequence:

A moment of deep breathing, laying aside the things of the coming day that worry or excite me.
I open my Bible to my “daily” bookmark and begin reading where I left off yesterday.
I read until something “grabs” my attention and I sense a connection, something meant for me today. That’s usually a few verses; there are mornings where I might read several pages.
I stop there and pray over that word, phrase, or verse.
I express my gratitude to God for his power, truth, provision, and care.
I pull up my lists of people and issues for intercession, asking God to work, seeking the good of others.

Another helpful practice for me is singing a few verses from a memorized hymn or praise song.

The purpose of study is to deeply understand with your mind. This is the work of preparing your mind for action (1 Peter 1:13) that we might better love the Lord and love our neighbors and fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

Your devotional time should always come before your study time, because you need the Living Teacher to instruct you. (John 14:26))

Separate devotion practices from Bible study. When doing both in the morning I’ll actually get up from my seat, walk out of the room, and then re-enter the room with “Now I am studying” as my mindset.

The foundation of all Bible study is a systematic, daily reading approach.

I’m occasionally asked what Bible reading plan I recommend. Any plan you follow which brings you to the Bible daily is helpful! When you’re ready for a larger systematic reading challenge, try either Professor Horner’s plan (10 chapters a day) or M’Cheyne’s plan (4 chapters a day).

The best challenge is to read the whole Bible in 30 days. You’ll see and grasp things you won’t catch by reading a little bit here and another bit there. I published my 30 day reading plan.

Some tips for this 30 day challenge:
1. Use a Bible without footnotes and study aids; focus on the actual text.
2. Don’t get stuck in details. Read for the big picture. If something catches your attention, make a note to come back another time.
3. This is about 50 pages a day in many Bibles. Create the time to read this much by suspending other reading, TV watching, etc. Most often you’ll need 2 or 3 reading times each day.
4. Identify a theme or set of questions that are in the back of your mind. This gives you the framework for considering what the Bible says about Redemption, Anger, Relationships, Wisdom, Praying, Serving, Ethical work practices, etc.
5. Doing this challenge with a friend is helpful. Encourage one another and share what you are learning.
6. If you fall behind, just begin again. Finishing in 40-50 days is still an excellent accomplishment.

You should also tackle specific studies to be better equipped for ministry. This might be a detailed study of one book of the Bible. Prayerfully read it over and over again — seek to understand its structure, its themes, the context (e.g., audience and timing). Read aloud to slow you down and “hear” things in the text you would otherwise miss.

You might do a theme or topic study of part or all of the Bible. Pick something that is significant to you, or to people you care deeply about. You might do a character study, looking at the biography of a major or minor figure in the Bible.

Most people jump too quickly to study helps. Struggle with the text. Think hard and pray for insight. You’ll be blessed as you do.

Specific recommended study helps:

Thompson’s Chain Reference Bible
Nave’s Topical Bible
A Bible atlas for maps
Commentaries on books of the Bible
Online searching tools like biblegateway.com or blueletterbible.org

The overall rhythm becomes:

Daily:
Devotion time to reconnect with God
Systematic reading plan

Several days each week:
Study project work

Occasionally:
Reading challenges like going through the whole Bible in 30 days

I hope you find these practices helpful as they have been to many thousands of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Fact: You must be cool and decisive, even in the most difficult situations, to be an effective leader.

Fact: Being human, you’ll have swirls of emotion, doubt, even fear. 

The way to become a leader who is outwardly cool and decisive under fire is to privately, systematically battle with your messy heart and mind. 

Study biographies on this theme.  People have extensively journaled their thoughts and emotions.  They take long walks in natural settings to sort out their messy minds.  They meditate.  They pray.  They study the biographies of others.  They have a close circle of people for private conversations.   All these things are practices which will help you.  This crucial interior work strengthens your ability to manage your exterior.

One of the curious things that shows up in some biographies – Teddy Roosevelt and Winston Churchill are two examples – is that they consciously wrote journals and notes and letters that others would read and study in the decades to come.  They kept their inner lives largely unwritten, uncaptured, because they saw themselves as persons of historic destiny. 

My counsel: do NOT imitate this. 

Journal freely.  Write and record thoughts, emotions, dreams, concerns.  Correspond privately with others.  Write and share as a means of becoming better. Use the practices to explore your internals, perhaps the greatest adventure for any human.   

You are an important person.
You have a messy heart and mind, and must confront them in order to get the most from them.
You have been given a sphere of influence larger than you deserve, so stay humble.
You are not a slave to what others think, or how they perceive you.
Your self-assessment is often deeply flawed, yet you can choose the harder vector of improving daily.

Three keys to most everything amazing that people have accomplished in all of history:

1. The willingness to delay gratification now for a bigger payoff later
2. Imagination
3. Grit

Strengthen these in yourself. Foster these in others.

Some behaviors are caustic, corrosive, and disruptive to effective teams and organizations:

• Bullying
• Control-freak
• Zero-trust management

My observation is that these behaviors are a natural out-working in a person who is driven by pride and immaturity.

Pride and immaturity are reinforced in a perverse positive feedback loop with fears and insecurity.  

I’ve sat with people in meetings and in 1:1 conversations and realized that they were filled with fears and insecurities.  We all have some fears, and some insecurity, but these people are brimming with them.  They are terrified that someone will penetrate their carefully-constructed facade.  They struggle to say “I don’t know.”  They are compelled to control situations.  They constantly monitor how people perceive them.  They trust no one because they can’t trust others.  Almost all criticism is received as an attack on their very identity. They’ve been doing this so long that it’s become unconscious.  They’re miserable, even as they may be outwardly smiling and making jokes.  

Dealing with these behaviors is difficult and expensive.  It helps me a little to understand where they’re coming from.  I can have more empathy because I’m seeing below the water line to where the behaviors originate. 

As a leader, coach, and mentor you need to help people move from bullying, zero-trust management approaches, and controlling behaviors.  You’ll need to work at the level of their behavior knowing there are deep swirling waters below. 

I don’t have a formula to “fix” people.  There are plenty of cases where therapy is necessary – refer people to professionals.  Your organization demands results and robust people management, but some roles are beyond you. Set clear expectations and call out observable behaviors.  If necessary, after a period of coaching without necessary improvement, move a person out.  You might agonize over the process. This calls for bravery, and it’s the right thing to do.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was arguably one of the five greatest composers in history.   From Wikipedia:

During his life, he composed nine symphonies, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, thirty-two piano sonatas, sixteen string quartets, two masses, and the opera Fidelio. Other works, like Für Elise, were discovered after his death and are also considered historic musical achievements. Beethoven’s legacy is characterized by his innovative compositions, including innovative combinations of vocals and instruments, and also by widening the scope of the sonata, symphony, concerto, and quartet, while he is also noted for his troublesome relationship with his contemporaries.

More than half of these compositions were created AFTER he became completely deaf. 

His earlier works were heavily influenced by Mozart and Haydn.  But his greatest works, his most original works, were crafted after his hearing loss was so bad that he stopped paying attention to what other composers of his time were doing. 

He conducted the premiere of his Ninth Symphony in 1824.  He did not realize the thunderous applause from the audience until someone physically turned him around so he could see them.  (The Ninth is on the top 5 lists for all classical Western music; here is a clip of the famous “Ode to Joy” section )

Two lessons leaders for leaders:

1. A significant weakness can become the avenue to great success if you don’t quit.  Beethoven’s most admired music was composed late in his life, long after he was deaf. Everyone would have understood if he abandoned composing and conducting.  
2. Originality blossoms when you are deaf to the trendy and popular. Music historians agree that Beethoven’s originality exploded because being deaf meant he wasn’t influenced by other popular composers of his time.  It was actually easier for him to listen to his Muse; his composing became an exercise in capturing the music in his head.

In particular, in our noisy world of abundant information and short-term rewards for riding trends, leaders should ponder when people are best serviced by deliberate, intentional deafness. 

If you want to sound smart, just say “Well, it’s complex” with a sagacious nod. 

If you want to be an effective leader or teacher, wrestle with the complexity to find the simplicity on the far side of the complexity.  Don’t settle for “simplistic” on the near side of complexity, because that doesn’t help you or anyone else. 

There is enormous power in simplifying:

• The business that absorbs complexity and can give customers a simple experience will rule a market.
• Leaders who craft a clear explanation to frame the right actions in the face of complexity will have an attentive audience.

Jesus was asked “What is the greatest commandment?”  (There were 613 commandments in Jewish Law.)  He said that “love God” and “love your neighbor” are the foundation for all the rest.  That’s a powerful example of simplification without being simplistic. 

Simple-but-deep resonates with people.  Simple-but-deep lasts.  The most profound scientific truths are simple (e=mc2). The best moral lessons are captured in easy-to-remember proverbs.  All our beloved stories follow a small number of simple frameworks.

The world is truly complex.  There are an unknown but large number of interlocking systems; we don’t even know all the parts, let alone who they relate to one another.  It’s difficult, often impossible, to make predictions. 

How do we navigate the complex world?  We obey the simple commands on the far side of that complexity. This is true at every age, and in every age.  Consider these simple behaviors which lead to success:

Health:  Drink water.  Sleep 8 hours a night.  Exercise to strengthen your body.  Wash your hands.  Brush your teeth.  Eat appropriate portions, including your fruits and vegetables.  Get a physical and follow your doctor’s advice. Laugh.

Finance: Spend less than you earn.  Create an emergency cash fund. Diversify your investments. Get life insurance.  Be generous with your wealth. 

Relationships: Tell the truth. Put others first.  Keep your promises.  Be a good friend. Smile!

All of these represent simplicity on the far side of complexity.  Your body is complex and ever-changing, but these behaviors are effective at every age.  You’ll go through decades of change in your financial picture, but these actions are reliable.  People are messy and impossible to fully understand, but simple choices strengthen relationships.

One problem with simple is… we seem addicted to the complex.  We actively search out messy and difficult while we think, “It can’t be this simple.”  We often look for way to claim something was not fully our responsibility. This, plus the natural tendency for us to fall away from practicing even good habits, leads us into a mess. 

Therefore, we need to support simplicity with reminders, suggestions, and reinforcing experiences (do this simple thing, here’s a desirable result!).  Most of all we need patience.  It takes time to develop clarity and simplicity in a noisy, complex world. 

Leading, teaching, managing projects and people, and all character-formation are based in the craft of simplification.

Don’t use complexity as an excuse to skip doing the simple things we know work well.  Focus on the simple behaviors which are proven to lead to success.

An observation about a major driver of our behavior:

We desperately want to think ourselves virtuous.  Therefore, we rationalize, make excuses, and tell ourselves lies (but I repeat myself) rather than the truth. 

We desperately want others to think we’re virtuous.  Therefore, we create masks, adopt personas, and tell lies (but I repeat myself) rather than the truth.  We’re very good at hiding, driven by fear of vulnerability and intimacy.

There is a worldview today which says that you were born innocent.  Something external to you happened – an oppression, some authority structure, an abuse – which led to your brokenness.  Healing the brokenness requires finding your true child self again. You are your inner light.

The fact that we must teach children the precepts of virtue, from a very early age on, strongly suggests that this is a fanciful worldview, not rooted in reality.

It’s much more likely that we’re born broken.  We need a savior.  We aren’t going to escape the masks, personas, rationalizations, and lies in our own power.