What stops executives, managers, teams, and individuals from being successful is often simply nonsense.
I learned this lesson over four decades as an executive, a coach and advisor. But it only became clear to me after a hike in the African bush.
Let me explain. What do you see in this picture?
Yes, it is a dung beetle.
What do dung beetles do? They move dung so that we don’t step in it.
Do you think that dung beetles see that stuff as dung? Surely not. What is dung to us is gold to him.
Now tell me, when you step in that stuff, do you struggle to identify it? Of course not!
That’s how it is with nonsense. You know it when it hits you.
And when it hits you, its up to you to find the sense in it.
Just like a dung beetle.
So, what is nonsense?
The term ‘nonsense’ describes absurd, ridiculous, foolish or meaningless words, ideas, or conduct. Nonsense is purely subjective: you are likely to see ‘nonsense’ when you disapprove of it. (For example, you might disapprove of the word ‘bull’, although others use it to indicate nonsense.)
The problem with nonsense is that it side-tracks you from your work, tricks you into wrong decisions, and trips you short of your goals. Nonsense stops you from being successful.
Nonsense is always at work.
It never stops. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there is always some sense in nonsense, if you look for it. And if you are willing to look for it, time and again you will find that you can make the nonsense at work work for you.
You see, nonsense has a purpose.
Nonsense works at getting you to change your ways.
. . .
Nonsense is perception. But perception is reality.
Undoubtedly, you have seen E. G. Boring’s picture of the old lady and the young girl, the one where you either see a young girl or an old woman.
Note. You cannot see both at the same time. It’s either or. It depends on your mindset, your preference, your blinkers.
The picture, not E. G. Boring, is quite famous. (If you don’t know what picture I am talking about, then search on-line using the key words “ambiguous Boring figure.”)
What is not famous (i.e. common knowledge) is that he got the idea for the picture from a British cartoonist named William Ely Hill.
In 1915 Mr. Hill published a cartoon in an American humor magazine named Puck. His cartoon had the following caption: “My Wife and My Mother-in-Law. They are both in this picture. Find them.”
But there was an even earlier version. Below is a German postcardfrom 1888:
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