Insight #365:
Would you like to guess what I see as the biggest mistake people make about nonsense? A mistake even I still make? We think that nonsense is somewhere else, away from us, outside us, out there. Not of us. We believe that nonsense is what other people trigger, make happen or get up to. And so we don’t bother to look for it right under our feet.
A lioness once charged me. (If you’ve heard this story before, thanks for remembering. And if you haven’t, don’t worry. I’ll probably tell it again and again.) When the lioness charged us, as we scrambled to get away from her, I heard a fellow bush hiker shout, “Where is she? I can’t see her!”
The bungling fool was trying to peer through his binoculars while shuffling backwards through the thorny African bushes. If he had dropped his binoculars, he would have seen her clearly, not just heard her, almost under his nose. And if he had shuffled a little slower, he could have patted the big cat on her head. If he managed to get his hand passed her teeth, that is.
That’s where you will find nonsense, right under your nose. Like the dung we found all over the African bush. It took less than one day of walking in the bush for us to learn that dung is everywhere. And that if we assumed it was over there, not over here, we would step in it.
Do you want a real example of business nonsense right at your feet? Some time ago, in the early 1990s, a local subsidiary of one of the big car companies had spent millions of dollars on a ‘total quality program.’ Even the CEO was heard to use the q-word in his monologues. And yet, the executives struggled to get quality to stick. Why? Because there was one bit of nonsense that even the ‘quality conscious’ CEO had missed right under his nose. Every workday he entered the head office foyer and walked passed their premium model on proud display for all visitors to admire. And every time he did nothing about the layer of dust clearly visible on their latest ‘quality’ product. (He could have reached out his hand and patted the quality car. If he managed to get his hand passed the dust, that is.)
On the hike in the African bush, I learned you don’t need binoculars or any other special equipment to see nonsense. It is not out there, but always right here, in front of you. Reach out and touch it. Then, like dung, get rid of it. Quickly.
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
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Quote of the Moment:
“Nonsense is like dung. If you step in it, it will stick to you. And if it sticks to you, you own it.” The Chief Nonsense Officer.
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