---
title: "We think in lists, not in connections"
description: "Saving one line in Excel cost an organisation its collaboration. Why lists hide what is really going on, and how you learn to draw arrows."
language: en
source: https://coachsteff.live/en/denken-in-verbanden
---

# We think in lists, not in connections

Look at your own notes from the last meeting. Chances are it is a list. A few points, asterisks in front of them, something you scribbled next to it later, and another asterisk. In a workshop on strategic thinking I predict to the group what their notes will look like later, and that is usually right.

We are trained to think in lists. That is not a bad thing, until you make decisions based on that list. Because a list shows what is there. It does not show what is connected to what.

## The story of the sandwiches

A few years ago a new financial director joined an organisation. Savings had to be made, and he did what every good financial director does. He opened his spreadsheet and went over every cost item. There he saw a small item: management sandwich lunch.

What he did not see, was what was behind it. For years all department heads had been coming together for lunch every two weeks. They clocked out for this, so they were actually working for free, and in return the organisation provided sandwiches. It was the informal moment when everyone shared what they were working on. It kept the machine oiled.

The director scrapped the line. Nobody was informed. The managers came to their lunch one day and there were no sandwiches. The dissatisfaction was great, and the lunch was cancelled. What followed was easy to guess for anyone who saw the whole picture: less alignment, more double work, more friction, more frustration, less engagement. All because of one line that was in the red.