Purpose and method, risk and opportunity
View this email in your browser (|ARCHIVE|)
Ideas are like food.
They are fuel for your work.
They can take on any number of new shapes and flavours depending on the way you combine them.
And their real power is defined in one of two ways: either by deciding what purpose they are meant to serve, or by choosing a method by which you are going to combine things.
Purpose
Aristotle once described this as the telos: the goal or purpose behind what we do.
Think of your work as though you are a line cook in a kitchen.
As one chef explained it to me: every line cook has their own way of preparing something. Each one swears it’s right way and the only way to do something well. And each one is absolutely correct, because each one—if they are any good at what they do—creates a consistently great product quickly and confidently.
Method
I like to contrast Aristotle’s telos with techne, which the Greeks described as the craft behind what we do.
Here, your work is like that of a pastry chef. Your ingredient list is fairly rigid, the steps involved in performing your work are timed precisely and your success is determined by how closely your adhere to that time-honoured method of working each time.
Choice
Here’s what I have noticed about most occupations: most of us approach our work either as a line cook or as a pastry chef.
We are either driven by a sense of purpose—anything goes as long as the product gets done well. Or we are guided by a more methodical way of producing an output: carefully following a tightly controlled script.
Risk
Both are valid ways of working. But the longer you stick with one of these approaches, you run a greater risk of getting stale. Your ideas become boring and predictable. If you’re lucky, you’ll notice that before others do. Again, if you’re lucky.
Instead, take a chance. Be daring. As “Mind Gym” author advises: “By letting go of the reality you’re used to, the ideas you generate are likely to be more quirky, different and engaging.”
If you think like a line cook, try forgetting what you think you know is true.
Try working as a pastry chef. Define a process for what you do and stick to it for a while. It will teach you something.
If you think like a pastry chef, try to put the rule book aside and take some chances and experiment a little.
Walking a mile or two in an unfamiliar approach to producing great work will teach you to appreciate that there’s more than one way to get things done.
There’s great danger in relying too often on the assumptions of what we think we know.
But there are many lessons we can learn from the journey into what we don’t know.
Very best, Patrick
http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=|URL:MC_SUBJECT|: |URL:ARCHIVE_LINK_SHORT| Tweet (http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=|URL:MC_SUBJECT|: |URL:ARCHIVE_LINK_SHORT|) http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=|URL:ARCHIVE_LINK_SHORT| Share (http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=|URL:ARCHIVE_LINK_SHORT|)
============================================================ |IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE| |LIST:DESCRIPTION|
unsubscribe from this list (|UNSUB|) update subscription preferences (|UPDATE_PROFILE|)
|IF:REWARDS| |REWARDS_TEXT| |END:IF|