Fronteza

Thoughts about The Art of Governance

It’s heavily massaged, but I have to say it once again, because I feel a longing to the philosophy today. The current turmoil is a proof of wisdom that misfortunes never come singly.

Moreover, we tend to heal effects with improper medicine, sort of using aspirin to heal hemorroid, when we have an indigestion. One reason of this is that there are too many doctors and each of them has own underpinnings. The Pandora’s box (nothing to do with Avatar!) has been opened and multiple misfortunes have started falling on. What do we have to do?

One doctor says: Forget everything! Tackle them one by one! You see that green one – start from that! I just like it.

Another doctor appeals: Are you out of your mind? Do not do that! That green looks ugly, I do not like it. And what does it mean – tackle them one by one?! It’s a nonsense! Let’s take a butterfly-net and catch a dozen at once!

Here it comes, a professor of  medicine: Boys, get rest! We need a machine gun with silver bullets!

Finally, Mr. Academic with a bunch of diplomas comes: Gentlemen! We have to use more refined approach. We need a laser gun with a self-guided system. Let’s create it, ’cause we do not have one right now and it will also help us to tackle with such problems in the future!

Meantime, misfortunes gave rise to new misfortunes and caused different side effects that have not been taken into account, because there were no such when we considered a laser gun. We have to re-make it and adapt to target new misfortunes. And so forth.

Finally, we get lost and end up with not comprehending the whole picture, the real size of problem, what is the root cause and what is its effect. But we have a super-modern, multi-barrelled laser gun with self-guiding bullets to hunt for multiple flies-misfortunes!

But here comes a small boy. He takes a look at all this bustle and fuss. Then he takes a look at flies-misfortunes and notices that a scarcely visible thread binds them, one by one. He asks his tutors: What is that? Maybe all we need is to find the way to make the very first fly-misfortune get back in the Pandora’s box and then close it… till the next time?

Flexibility, entrepreneurship and non-patternized thinking combined with courage, common sense and out-of-box thinking, not MBA-ized thinking and standard approaches and techniques, is a great plus during turmoil, ’cause it provides fresh ideas and views. No matter of level – single business or country-wide.

Errors? Of course, there will be errors! Important is not that you get into troubles, but how you find the way out, the proper solution. Here the out-of-box thinking is a bold plus.

Flexibility, entrepreneurship and non-patternized thinking combined with courage, common sense and out-of-box thinking, not MBA-ized thinking and good-time approaches and techniques, is a great plus during turmoil, ’cause it provides fresh ideas and views. No matter of level – single business or country-wide.

Propose to someone to review a solution.  If s/he starts talking why it will not work, how much you will lose, s/he is either an MBA or an academic. They unconsciously use their petternized thinking and knowing to assess the solution using some standards, using something they are aware of.

If s/he starts talking about opportunities, how much you will earn, how the solution can be improved and if s/he start gradually decomposing the solution to reveal bottle necks, weaknesses and “black holes” to come up with relevant risk mitigation and roundabout tactics, then it’s a guy or a girl you need to survive the storm.

To finish my philosophical babbling, I will supply one example from martial arts. When you start learning a martial art, you act instinctively. Gradually you advance, you learn the form, you learn to apply techniques and holds. During this time your mind gets locked – it tries to use the known forms to protect and attack. It loses its instinctive, unbound nature. Now your task is… to return to the beginning. You have to learn to act instinctively again, you have to free or de-patternize your mind.

We say “learn the form and then forget the form”. And this is what MBAs and other patternized minds must remember and what they have to strive for. There is no form at the end.