Weekly Inspirations
2019 — Q1W5 — Essence
The importance of going to the Core.
I have been a migraine sufferer for the last 30 years. During this time science has advanced substantially in its understanding of what causes a migraine. I’ve acquired a lot of new knowledge. Yet, at the essence of my journey has been continuous experimenting to improve my awareness and get to the essence of what causes them.
One of the key learnings has been that one and the same symptom (a migraine headache) can be caused by two dozens different reasons (i.e. a certain type of food, change of routine, stress, coffee habits, etc.) To make things even more complex, the same factor (i.e. type of food) might cause a migraine headache one time and not another.
For any migraine sufferer, staying only with the symptoms would mean subjecting to a life of pain-killers with no hope for achieving a quality of life. It takes experimentation, reflection and dedication to get to the core of what triggers the migraine headaches and how to reduce them. In this case, it is about looking for interconnectedness and relations and discovering the larger patterns that repeat themselves.
Same is true for so many other things in life in general and business in particular. You might be designing a new product, trying to understand what impacts team performance or looking at customer feedback.
For anything that matters, the key is to get to the essence.
Cause-and-effect tools have been used for ages. Yet, the main mistake has been imaging them as simple and linear processes. No living organism (no matter whether it is a human, organisation or society) is functioning as a simple linear process. Any living system is characterised by complexity and interconnectedness.
There are two key aspects we need to embrace and master if we want to get to the core of what matters.
- A mindset of constant experimentation. That includes using short cycles, maintaining an openness for learning and embracing failures as the natural part of the process.
- Mastering our Systems Intelligence. Here is more on that:
Check other weekly inspirations of mine.
