We live in an on-demand world. Virtually anything you want can be at your door within 24 hours (or less).
The problem with this on-demand reality is that we begin applying the same expectations to other parts of our lives. If we’re just out of college…we expect to have the same lifestyle we were accustomed to with our parents. We fail to realize they (our parents) spent decades getting to that point. But we want it now (on-demand)!
The same goes for learning. If we pickup a guitar today, we expect to be shredding out Freebird, Stairway To Heaven or Seven Nation Army (some of the harder guitar songs) by tomorrow.
We are hyper-focused on the destination and we under-appreciate the journey.
“But, isn’t that what it’s all about? The end-goal? Keep your eyes on the prize” and all that jazz? That’s what many in “bro-culture” companies and society would have you believe…but, without valuing the journey? You miss out on so many lessons. And those lessons have enormous value.
The College Experience
I loved college. Meeting so many different people from so many different walks of life with so many different philosophies. If we look at “college” as the activity…the “destination” is graduation. Those that become hyper-focused on graduation miss out on so much value.
I got involved in student government and learned how to “politic.” I spent time with professors who told me to not memorize but instead learn concepts and then learn how to apply those concepts. I learned how to learn from those with far more experience than I.
Those experiences have paid dividends, equal to or greater than my degree.
That was possible only because I embraced the journey. I valued the journey. I recognized that the journey was a part of the destination…not just some obstacle to the destination.
Vacations
My family and I love to travel. We’ve been to a lot of places out of our comfort zone. We screw up. Hell, we missed our flight by an entire day once! But I can tell you that these bumps? Made the experience even more fulfilling.
Failure isn’t fatal. Look, we’ve forgotten to pack key items, killed our rental car and got stranded in Edinburgh. We’ve gotten on the wrong train and had to backtrack, spoken the wrong words in another language and…once in Lake Como, got stranded on the other side of the lake. Late at night.
But those experiences, those failures, added to the journey. Enhanced the “destination.” It’s made us better at planning. Quicker at adapting. Braver at taking on bigger adventures. Has each trip been “Instagram” perfect? No! But the journey…the hiccups…made for a much more memorable “destination.”
Failure
Thomas Edison famously quipped that he knew 2,000 ways to not make a light-bulb. We remember him for creating the light-bulb, yes, but would we be here today if he had not have gone through the journey? Without failure, would he have found success?
What if he had the same “on-demand” expectations that we have today? After failure number 10, would he have given up? Number 20? 30? Ignoring the journey as part of the destination leads to quicker exits from the learning process.
I bash a lot on KPIs and it’s not because they aren’t a valuable component to business. They are. The problem with KPIs is how we apply them. Managers use KPIs to enforce this notion that every action must lead to a measurable “success” today. And that’s the problem. The “on-demand” nature. The urgency and immediacy.
It’s no wonder why employees are scared to innovate. Innovation and failure go hand-in-hand. If I try something new, it’s a near-sure-thing that I will fail that first attempt. Probably even the second attempt too.
Failure is a part of the learning journey; and learning is indeed a journey. If I try something new today, I will not hit KPIs today and probably not tomorrow. Yet, many managers have that expectation. Immediacy. Urgency. So, as an employee…why would I ever risk that? Why try something new today if my feet are going to get held to the fire tomorrow?
One of my favorite quotes says “we cannot discover new oceans unless we have courage to lose sight of old shores.” Every journey has its’ bumps. Even more so when learning, innovating or taking on something “new.” We must accept that failure, bumps and bruises are a part of it. We cannot assume that success will happen immediately; that KPIs are going to be hit with urgency.
Ultimately, we can:
Embrace a learning environment and appreciate the journey. We can recognize that success and hitting-KPIs aren't going to happen immediately, but, eventually our efforts will lead to great discovery, or...
We can enforce an ‘on-demand’ mentality which will turn our employees into a group of risk-averse-KPI-watchers who are too scared to try anything new.
If you choose option #2 and your organization gets out-innovated and passed by? At least you've got that KPI report you can frame and hang on your wall, right?
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