A measure of quality
It is a truly digital age. Data is spewing out in all directions. Some of it is false. Much of it is valuable. We still need to remember the old axiom ‘Garbage in, garbage out’. More importantly we have to consider how to deal correctly with those things we cannot measure. Love is important. Sensing other peoples’ strong and weak moments, interpreting a seemingly irrelevant aside, judging the breaking point, guessing pressures we cannot see, watching for failure signals. Unless we assign ourselves the task of mentally measuring these, they will forever be lowly regarded.
A client came to us many years ago with ambitions to punch well above his weight. He wasn’t greedy, nor dishonest. He was simply ambitious to show his wife and kids, and the rest of the family, that he had what it takes. It was doubtful if he did. Brains about 55%, personality about the same, vision higher, 75%, self-awareness, maybe 50%, confidence vacillating between 45% and 80% and for the wrong reasons. Prime need: attention – a high 80%. Prime skill: intermittent quick wit, a wobbly 60%. Prime weakness: need to be liked, a devastating 95%, a real negative.
There are other aspects but the list is too long for a Daily Paradox, that’s why we have PASDAQ® to cover the rest. But just the above list is enough to tell you that [a] he is a challenge [b] he won’t like being told why [c] he is an ‘Easy Stopper’ (someone who gives up easily). These are among the most sensitive and difficult people to handle. Their sensitivity, properly used, is their greatest asset – yet they scarcely acknowledge its existence. When they do – wow, they succeed.
The normal routine for someone like this is “Look-in, Look-out”. Study yourself thoroughly, then switch and spend all your time studying others, not as a comparison but as a foundation for your relationship with them. Our Fast-Track Freddie was so determined (good quality) to get on that anything other than a zippy approach was going to leave him derailing. How to handle that?
The fastest way to someone’s solutions is through their current problems. Tackle what seems to be their first issue, practically. Forget the theory, that will be snuck in on the journey. If you try and start with it they will lose interest. Make the problem like a chess board. If they move in such-and-such a way how will their opponent move? We mentor a ‘chess of life’ game, not some complicated, convoluted version of chess but a simple three-dimensional structure so you can see what your moves precipitate in others and vice versa.
This will solve the immediate problems but leaves a strategic void – the most dangerous of plays in chess or life. Seeing beyond the crisis or opportunity involves knowing what you want. This is rare. Most people express it as happiness. Some of the less intelligent think it is wealth because to have enough is a comforting and desirable objective. To have ‘nearly enough’ on the other hand is to fall for the greed that destroys without constructing. It does that because the construct is character and greed is it’s battery acid.
A strategy built solely on logic is doomed from the outset. Certainly, it must make sense and the risks must be as well defined as they can. Watch the series Hustle and you’ll see that Mickey Bricks sensing is more about the team’s strengths than about it’s opponents weaknesses. Those strengths are not all measurable, nor are they constants. Pressures, moods, loves, hates, all play a part in determining the best ‘mark’. I’m not suggesting that you ‘hustle’. Only that you measure like that. You are just as much on your own as a hustler.
It’s not only people and animals that have souls. Projects, thoughts, aspirations do, too. You may study your opponent thoroughly, you may have an almost prescient understanding of situations. Look into a project’s soul and you will see that it has a life of its own, an independence we humans sometimes lack. Like a box jellyfish, a project can float away from its pre-programmed course and mate or sting somewhere it was never expected to.
In the above scenarios quality plays the dominant part, measuring it the most difficult challenge. What does that mean for constructing a strategy that will win?
It means, collect the facts and be as fact-based as you can. That brings you level-pegging with the competition. Now go quietly into your own corner and sense and judge the unmeasurable. You won’t get them right all the time. Practice will improve your score.
When you do get these slippery eels of thought under control you will win.
Like the client I mentioned earlier. He won deliciously!