1 article
-
Complex is not the same as complicated
You repair a car by looking for the cause, not a team. I explain why that difference matters and where we often go wrong.
A few years ago we were driving back from France. And then the lights on our dashboard started to come on. Orange and red lights, usually not a good sign. It was Sunday and we still had a few hundred kilometres to go. We did get home. But we needed someone who knew about these things. And the mechanic did what a good mechanic does: he searched. First in the engine, then in the parts and then in the parts of those parts. Until he found a small filter. He replaced the filter and all the lights went out.
I tell that story in a workshop on strategic thinking, because it fits so beautifully. There is one cause, you find it and you solve it. I think we are trained to think like that. And that is exactly why things go wrong when we start thinking like that about something that is not a car.
Free with an accountRead