Friday, September 5, 2014

Six Months to Genius

One of the first things I was told in moving down this road was "set your genius aside for six months."  In other words, the wheel for this venture has already been invented and it has also been refined, so no need to try and  re-create it.  It's good advice; one of the curiosities of people is our desire to stamp something as our own, no matter what it is.  It may work in decorating a home or office, or in mapping out an exercise plan - a bit of personalization here, some customization there - but it is seldom a good idea when inside a larger framework that includes other people.  

Systems exist to guide activity and communication among the components of any organization.  They have been the subject of a great deal of academic inquiry, this being one example.   System theory began as a biological application but has since spread to multiple disciplines.  I am not going to belabor the particulars (though if you really want to get in the weeds, this is a good start); suffice it to say that most aspects of your life - work, home, play - involve some sort of system.  

Ironically, the concept of systems and advice like "set your genius aside for six months" are treated as anathema to entrepreneurs.  In a sense, the very act of entrepreneurship stems from the belief that an existing system could use some re-engineering.  And when the tweaking is done, what's left?  A new system.  That the next guy will want to tweak a bit further.  There is a "lather, rinse, repeat" nature to it, isn't there. 

Since Russ (he's the guy behind "set your genius aside...") has been doing this much longer than I have, I'll work with the plan.  In many ways, it makes life easier by eliminating any guesswork, providing a sort of road map for the ramp up process.  And you ladies know that guys tend to like maps; they certainly don't like asking for directions, so that is one dilemma already avoided.  

For the most part, I am a systems guy with perhaps one quirk - I like for things to make sense.  "Because we've always done it this way" is a horrible rationale.  "Because it works" is not hard to understand.  Things that work are less likely to inspire attempted fixes.  You know how the wheel analogy keeps coming up?  It's with good reason.  The wheel has been round for a long time.  Oh, sure; there are new alloys and new materials used in building wheels and a lot of new uses, but the basic concept is the same.  

Six months.  I'm on the clock.  I think Russ' advice came with two implied parts:  everyone is going to do some juggling within the system to reflect who they are but changing "happy" to "glad" is not a big deal.  Second, he has nothing to gain by setting me up for failure.  And with genius in storage, the game is on.      

 

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