What's That About?
By Les Mottosky
When you're looking for a result, how often do you try the opposite of what seems intuitive to produce it?
A friend was sharing his challenges with nagging shoulder soreness when I mentioned hanging from a pull-up bar for 90 seconds a couple times a day. To anyone who's experienced a tender shoulder, the idea of allowing the most complicated joint in our body to support our body weight – when it's feeling vulnerable – seems inconceivable.
It worked for my friend. And it's been an effective therapeutic approach for countless others. The very rough theory behind it is that the stretch from hanging allows for increased blood circulation around the crowded joint, providing greater cellular detoxification and the delivery of healing oxygen.
The habit of using counterintuitive concepts to produce – sometimes surprisingly effective – results is a major life hack. And it's also one we too often ignore.
This approach, however, is a philosophy well documented in the greatest work of art ever produced.
The Tao Te Ching is a book that's been referenced in this column many times in the past. It's a timeless, ancient Chinese guide to living in harmony with the natural flow of life. It teaches that wisdom, strength, and influence arise through simplicity, humility, and alignment rather than force.
In a world where governments monopolize force, it's clear why the Tao Te Ching isn't more popular. (The book is very specific about how the most effective political leaders are noninterventionist.)
That's not to say it isn't popular. Only surpassed by the Bible in it's number of translations, this 5000 word treatise is reported to have been kept on Einstein's desk. That might not surprise those who've studied Old Albert, because his impressive intelligence may have been matched by his wisdom.
Rather than pushing into the specific verses of the Tao Te Ching, let's look at some common, everyday ideas that reflect it's seemingly off kilter approaches:
• The tighter you hold, the less you keep.
• Release control to gain influence.
• Leadership begins with humility.
• Vulnerability is strength.
• Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
• Don't just do something. Sit there.
• The map is not the territory.
• Culture follows behaviour.
• Create value and opportunities follow.
• Capacity often comes from what is absent, not what is present.
• Obsessing over outcomes often blinds us to the conditions that create them.
• The harder a system tries to control change, the less capable it becomes of adapting to it.
Logic and experience are so reliable that we rarely deviate from them when we're in need of a solution.
Counterintuitive problem solving can be surprisingly effective when an answer isn't immediately obvious. This requires us to be curious and willing to think in new ways. That's not always easy. Our brains like their habits.
The simple act of maintaining the awareness that we're not obligated to do what we've always done, can snap us out of our cognitive ruts.
This can be counterintuitive.
And that's the whole point.
TAGS: #What's That About?
Les Mottosky
Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.
Ask about the Clarity Engine Process.
Members Discussion