Leaders often face fuzzy and poorly-defined problems.  It’s hard to see their edges.  Sometimes you have a vague sense of the problem but aren’t sure how big it is. 

There’s a helpful “trick” to getting more clarity on dimly-lit problems:  Look to the side of them.

I was 8 years old when our Cub Scout leader took us on a night hike in the woods.  We were following a path in the pale moonlight, forbidden to use our flashlights, walking as silently as we could to listen for animal noises.  Our leader gave us about 20 minutes in the meadow at the edge of the woods for our eyes to adjust.  He also told us that we’d see better in the dim light if we didn’t look directly at objects but just to the side.  I was amazed how much better I could see the branches and rocks that way!  I learned later on that amateur astronomers do the same thing to better see dim stars in the night sky.

This visual trick is ancient wisdom rooted in the way the human eye is organized.  There are two types of photo-receptor cells, cones and rods.  Cones are less abundant, see color and bright light, and are concentrated at the center of the retina.  Rods are more abundant, can’t see color, and a distributed at the edges of the retina.

Individual cone cells are directly wired to the retina nerves.  It takes many photons of light to stimulate a cone cell, so they’re practically useless in dim light.  You might have noticed that even bright colors only look gray at night. 

Many rod cells are clustered to a single retinal nerve.  Each cell can pick up a small number of photons, but it takes a group of rod cells to fire the retinal nerve.  Rod cells are great for detecting movement at the edge of your vision, but have low acuity.  You might think it’s an animal moving in the dark toward you but it turns out to be trash blowing in the wind.

The combination of cone and rod cells gives humans the full range of color in daylight and decent navigation and threat detection in dim light. 

Back to fuzzy problem solving.  

As much as we favor and reward initiative and focused action, there are many organization and project problems which simply won’t yield to a direct assault.  Come at them from an angle.  Intentionally turn off the bright light focus and look askance to see them differently, often more clearly.  Let your subconscious work on it while you’re walking your dog, cleaning house, or sleeping.  Trust that new insights will come. 

Question: Do you replace all the analog tools of the past with digital and automation, or intentionally preserve a mix?

I’ve learned that there are times when I do better working with paper and pen, rather than opening up an application on my phone or PC.  I craft lists and mind-maps, doodling with arrow and stars to show key points and connections. I get new insights and ideas when I start with blank sheet of paper, or a new Moleskine journal page, and a pen that I really enjoy. This is particularly true when I’m trying to clarify my messy thoughts. 

Yet there are other times when I’ll choose a software program for capturing my brain dump and editing into something more useful.  I can type faster than I can write by hand.  My mind-map software is efficient and better suited to creating a map presentable for others.

I favor my analog watch with the night-glow feature.  I can tell at a glance how much time is left in a meeting without having to do a mental calculation.  The night-glow feature makes it easy to see the time when I wake up in the middle of the night.  I suffer from so many distractions that the idea of an Apple watch interface makes my gut wrench.

It’s much easier for me to study and learn from physical books and printed articles than to read online.  I do use my Kindle but… it’s not the same experience.  The Kindle is great for buzzing through books to find nuggets that are useful, when I don’t need to absorb complex information and long-format information.

I wouldn’t trade the calculator app on my phone for a slide rule.  I love studying maps but when I’m on the move I adore my GPS-driven navigation options.  I confess it’s been a few years since I wrote and sent a physical letter rather than an email. 

Discern what tools work best for you in what circumstances.  Don’t become self-righteous about your choices; don’t judge others for theirs.  Be intentional with your tools to maximize the value of your time and creative output. 

Bonus: Decide whether tool upgrades are worth it.  My rule of thumb is that an upgrade has be to 3x-5x better to compensate for the switching cost.  Last year I upgraded my stapler to a new design which requires about 1/5^th the force of a conventional stapler.  I can staple 5 pages together with a finger press. It’s a joy to use.  I wish all my upgrades have gone as well!

C.S. Lewis wrote “We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”

What did Lewis mean by “men without chests”?  These are men (and women!) who only operate with a brain stem, just primal functioning, lacking thinking, discernment, wisdom, or self-control.  They’re completely selfish.  They’re fearful, avoiding even the slightest pain or discomfort.  They lack conviction or principles. They have no heart.  They’re quick to sacrifice all their real freedoms for temporary pleasures.

A college student gives up his right to express himself so that no one can accuse them of “micro-aggression.”  No chest.

The manager continues to pass along what she knows are lies to her employees, to avoid any scenario where they might lose their bonus.  No chest.  

The politician uses “that’s the way our system works” to excuse a decision he never would have accepted before he was elected.  No chest.

Parents continue to rescue their adult children from the consequences of every bad decision they make.  No chest.

The unemployed man steals from the local gas station thinking “It’s not my fault, I don’t have a choice.”  No chest. 

The retired man sits in his BarcoLounger watching TV to pass the day, health worsening, wasting his ability to help someone, anyone. No chest. 

We need men and women with chests.  They can’t be manufactured or cloned, they must be produced one person at a time.  You don’t inherit a chest; it must be earned.  

Consider your situation.  Yesterday is done.  Choose today to be a man or woman with a chest.  Cultivate responsibility, honor, depth, and self-control.

I have a natural bent towards communicating what I’m doing and thinking about (up and down the org chart, and with peers).  Yet in 1994 I was working on a significant project without my boss knowing even the broad strokes of what was going on.  He found me in my office one afternoon, slammed my door shut behind him, and vented his substantial anger. 

“I just told [Mr. VP] that you couldn’t possibly be working on X because I would surely know about something that committed my department to that big a change.  He produced emails.  I look like an idiot managing a moron with a Ph.D. degree!” 

It took me 2 years to fully crawl out of that credibility crater.

Don’t ever let your boss be ignorant.  Don’t make them plead ignorance when some issue surfaces.  This supports Rule #2: Make your boss look good.  

Adapt to your boss’ preferences about how to be informed.  Some prefer verbal updates, some written.  A tactic which has worked well for me, especially in situations where my boss is remote and has large responsibilities, is to send a deliverables update every 2 weeks or so.  Takes me about 10-20 min to compile, and actually helps me think through what needs to happen next.  The email is structured like this:

Delivered:

• Specific deliverable
• Specific deliverable
• Specific deliverable
• Specific deliverable
• Specific deliverable
• Specific deliverable

In flight / Upcoming:

• Planned actions and tasks (include date where you can)
• Planned actions and tasks (include date where you can)
• Planned actions and tasks (include date where you can)
• Planned actions and tasks (include date where you can)
• Planned actions and tasks (include date where you can)

Reminder about PTO or other significant travel

Definitions matter. What do I mean when I say that I’m politically conservative?  Conserving what’s precious. Here is what I believe:

• Our individual rights come from God, not from man
• The purpose of government is supportive in citizen’s lives, rather than intrusive and overbearing: maintain law & order, defend citizens in war, promote free trade
• Freedom of speech regardless of content
• Freedom of assembly and association
• Freedom of thought, including religious belief
• Character and behavior are far more significant than inherent characteristics like race and gender

(I do not list free-market capitalism as a conservative belief, though it has done more to lift billions of people out of poverty than any other economic system.  All economic systems can be corrupted because men are not angels.  Free-market capitalism is a good outgrowth of conservative beliefs.)

My observation is that progressives do not hold these principles.  They elevate the State’s power in determining who gets what rights. They actively speak and act against free speech, free assembly, and freedom of thought.  They generally favor larger and more intrusive government as solution to an escalating set of problems.  Progressives use inherent characteristics as primary identifiers and value them above character and achievements.  

There is a weak correlation between political parties and conservative/progressive beliefs.  Not all Republicans are conservative; not all Democrats are progressive. 

My conviction: Holding to conservative beliefs about people and government is the best hedge against slipping into far left communism or far right fascism.  

I’m increasingly convinced that the key “superpower” for leaders going forward is the ability to focus.  Focus is key to each of these:

• Staying calm in the swirl and making good decisions
• Sufficient time-on-problem thinking to generate breakthrough solutions
• Listening to others deeply (including what is not being said)
• Absorbing complex information and acquiring new skills
• Discerning signal in noisy environments

There is very little in our modern culture which helps you focus.  The powers-that-be often benefit when you’re distracted and occupied with minutiae. I like Chuck Palahnuik’s insight:

“Old George Orwell got it backward. Big Brother isn’t watching. He’s singing and dancing. He’s pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother’s busy holding your attention every moment you’re awake. He’s making sure you’re always distracted. He’s making sure you’re fully absorbed. He’s making sure your imagination withers. Until it’s as useful as your appendix. He’s making sure your attention is always filled. And this being fed, it’s worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what’s in your mind. With everyone’s imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world.”

The three best modern books I’ve read about focus are:

Deep Work (Cal Newport)

Indistractable (Nir Eyal)

Essentialism (Greg McKeown)

However, books only take you to the brink of experience. 

There are some helps:  Close your email (or work offline), turn off notifications on your phone, rearrange meetings so you have blocks of time, find a working environment where you won’t be interrupted, take 3 minutes for deep breathing to calm your mind, set a timer for X minutes and work until you hear it go off, etc. 

Fundamentally you must practice and develop your ability to focus for longer periods of time.  It’s worth the effort.

Here are five books I’ve read since November 15, 2019 which I recommend to a broader audience. (I read several I don’t recommend.)

The Moral Sayings of Publilius Syrus

A collection of aphorisms and sayings which influenced Seneca the Younger, Renaissance and Enlightenment writers. Syrus was a Syrian slave who was freed by his master in Italy. He died in 43 BCE.

The Hundred Year Marathon (Michael Pillsbury)

Well-documented account of China’s very long-term strategy of defeating the western hegemony using lessons learned from their Warring States period. Sobering. Insightful.

Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin’s Most Dangerous Hackers (Andy Greenberg)

Reads like a thriller. The new era of cyberwar connects the digital world and physical infrastructure. We’re deeply vulnerable.

The Canterbury Tales (Chaucer — translated by Gerald Davis)

The classic collection of tales of pilgrims journeying together to the shrine at Canterbury. Davis’ translation is readable and enjoyable. I got so much more reading this in my late 50’s than I did when I was 19 years old.

Leadership Strategy and Tactics (Jocko Willink)

Extremely readable and engaging. Jocko recounts personal stories where he learned, and translates combat leadership into strategy and tactics for any and every leader.

The real world is loaded with feedback loops.  They’re a critical part of healthy, constructive systems.  Your organization must build them, listen to them, and exploit them to out-perform the market and competitors.

Many of the greatest works of genius in the past 300 years are based on understanding feedback loops:

• James Watt – the steam engine
• Adam Smith – economics
• Charles Darwin – adaptation to environment
• Claude Hopkins – advertising
• Maria Montessori – education
• John Boyd – warfare (OODA loop)
• Edwards Deming – quality in manufacturing
• US Constitution framers – distribution of government power

You can readily observe the problems caused by feedback loop break-down.  Cancer cells run amuck rather than growth limited by normal feedback signals.  Blood sugar levels spike and stay high because a diabetic doesn’t have insulin levels to direct cells to pull sugar out of the bloodstream.  Predator and prey cycles are amplified when humans take out the predators.  Businesses over-stock inventory because the signals of decreasing demand aren’t received (and acted upon).  Tyranny happens when a political leader has no countering feedback about his plans. 

A common set of runaway problems are fundamentally about breaking feedback loops by introducing a 3^rd party payer.  Student loan debt soared in the US after Congress made federal student loans non-dischargeable (can’t use bankruptcy) and federalized all student loans.  There is the related case of costs of college tuition skyrocketing because of 3^rd party payment systems.  Health care costs explode when an insurance company (or a government entity) pays instead of the patient.  All began with sincere intentions.  None have significantly changed because the bureaucracy won’t embrace feedback or change.

The greatest human-caused disasters have spun from a desire to rule through ideas absent any feedback loops: communism, socialism, fascism, crony capitalism (completely different than free-market economics).  Ideology is considered much more powerful than reality.   

Let me come down to your leadership, rather than the real-but-abstract that you don’t directly influence. 

Your key question should be “Where best to put feedback loops into our business?” 

The key principle: Put the responsibility for designing, collecting, and responding to feedback as low in the organization as possible. 

Operations: Violate this rule and the operational parts of your organization will experience spiraling costs and inefficiencies because there is no feedback loop at levels where things are small and immediate.  The CEO and board of directors getting feedback is much less useful because of the length of the cause and effect loops. 

New products and services: Design feedback early and often is critical to success. It’s a foundation of Lean Startup methodology.

Leading professionals: People management and coaching for performance thrives on immediacy (time and space) of feedback.   Professionals crave it.

Again, build feedback loops, listen to them, and exploit them to out-perform the market and competitors.

HT:  This was inspired by comments from Perry Marshall and Tom Meloche.

Many people are surprised to learn that I’m introverted rather than extroverted, and routinely battle self-doubt and anxiousness. I’ve learned to act in effective ways — stepping forward, starting conversations, boldly publishing and broadcasting, acting counter to the crowd when I disagree.

Most people have doubts. They struggle with occasional bouts of anxiousness. It’s common, and these are valuable. Let me explain why.

Picture your situation like driving a car — you have a brake, an accelerator, and a steering wheel. Self-doubt and anxiousness are brakes on your contribution. Boldness and action are the accelerator. You have choices about where to steer.

Narcissists and psychopaths don’t have any brakes. They constantly stomp on the accelerator. They’re a tremendous hazard to the people around them.

Embrace your doubts and anxiousness as friends to keep you humble and from preventable error. Use your judgment to decide when to accelerate harder or to coast.

I’ve consistently read 2-3 books/week for many years, plus my systematic Bible reading.  Many fine books are published each year, in addition to the long history of great books.  We live in a privileged time when so many books are widely available. I feel a special surge of pleasure when someone asks me about a book and I can say, “Yes, I’ve read that.” 

My strategy going forward:

• Focus 80% of my time re-reading the classics and a set of books I find most significant. Read deeply, unhurriedly – dive deep, and ponder.  I plan to spend the next 10 years going back through the Great Books of the Western World collection, and about 40 other books of enduring value to me.
• Continue my systematic Bible reading – 10 chapters/day, plus periodic read-throughs of the whole Bible.  (Reading about 50 pages/day takes me through the whole Bible in 30-35 days.)
• Intentionally ignore all but the most-compelling new books in leadership, business, and history.

It made perfect sense for me to read widely and rapidly when I was younger.  This adjusted strategy improves my ability to think deeply and wisely about the most significant issues. 

Have you articulated your strategy for book reading and consuming information?