Killing 7 Impediments in One Blow
Have you heard the story of the Brave Little Tailor? Here’s a refresher:
So one day this little guy kills 7 flies with one mighty blow. He crafts for himself a belt with “7 in One Blow” sewn into it. He then proceeds through various feats of cleverness to intimidate or subdue giants, soldiers, kings and princesses. Each one, in their own ignorance, misinterpreting what “7 in One Blow” actually refers to. It’s a classic for a number of reasons:
It’s a story about mis-communication: Not one single adversary has the wit to ask just what he means by killing “7 in one blow”
It’s also a story about using one’s cleverness to achieve great things. You have to love the ingenuity of the little guy as he makes his way adroitly past each obstacle.
It’s a story about blowing things way out of proportion. Each of the tailor’s adversaries manages to magnify the capabilities of the tailor to extraordinary, even supernatural levels.
I’m thinking I might have to get a belt like that and wear it around the office. A nice pair of kahkis, a button down shirt, and a big belt with the words, “7 in One Blow”. Given how prone we all tend to be to each of the foibles above, I’m sure it would be a riot. A QA guy might see my belt and say, “Wow! He killed 7 bugs in one blow!” Maybe a project manager might see it and think, “This guy is so good he finished 7 projects all at once!” Or maybe the HR rep says, “Did he really fire 7 people in one day?” Or the Scrum Master who thinks, “That’s a lot of impediments to clear out at once!” The point is that we make up these stories all the time. We have stories in our heads about our team mates, “Did you hear about Joe?” our managers, and their managers. Sometimes it seems as though we all have these distorted visions of each other. And perhaps we do. We need to get better at questioning those stories. We need to cultivate more of a sense of curiosity about the incomplete knowledge that we have of each other. That belt would be my reminder. I might have to buy one for each member of my team. Of course the other thing that the belt can remind us of, is to use our own innate cleverness to help get what we need. When we are wrestling with the corporate challenges, we all too often tend to try and brute force our problems and obstacles. We need to be a bit more like the Little Tailor and manipulate the world around us with some cleverness. We all have it to one degree or another, and Lord knows we need all the cleverness we can get. Good work is full of challenges and you don’t want to take them all head on or you will end up like an NFL linebacker – brain damaged. Instead, we need to approach some things with subtlety. There is just as much value in not being in the path of a problem as there is in tackling things head on. Like the Tailor, we need to recruit others to achieve our objectives. Finally, we really must stop blowing things out of proportion. Nobody cares about our methodology. You want to know what my favorite kind of pairing is? Lunch! We need to lighten up a bit. Working your way through the dark corporate forest, you can either play with what ever it brings and gracefully dodge the risks, or…you can get stepped on.