Humility Is Human
By Les Mottosky
It crushed Rome. It sank the Titanic. It bankrupted Kodak. And sometimes, it gets us everyday humans, too.
The idealogical rigidity of hubris grips our mind and quickly spreads to the rest of our being. If we're paying attention, it feels like a full-on, head-to-toe constriction of our mind and body.
The impact of this stubborn, excessive pride or self-confidence blinds us to our limits, leading us to defy reason, evidence, or fate and almost always predicts a downfall.
There currently appears to be an abundance of hubris. And it was predictable. Approximately one quarter of people overestimate internet knowledge as complete. When a tool is that widely regarded to be the depository of all human knowledge – and everyone has access to it – the spread and rise of hubris is to be expected. (Even that trite description of 'the depository of all human knowledge' is wildly hubristic.)
But the internet isn't the only reason for it. The ground was laid by academia and a societal over-emphasis on information, knowledge and education. Our focus and reliance on ivory tower directives got us here. But it won't get us where we need to go next.
Obviously, a certain amount of knowledge is required to navigate life, but over-indexing on it neutralizes the most powerful tool every human possesses: our creativity. This outsourcing of personal power to something beyond our resourceful and ingenious selves creates a void of quiet insecurity. That void is rapidly filled by hubris because it feels like a return to control.
When we're preoccupied with knowledge, we've condemned our minds to the past. This limits the creative potential available in the moment. Curiosity, discovery, spontaneity and – most consequentially – learning, all take a third-row backseat to knowledge and, secondly, the pride that comes with it.
For a quarter century, reliable recall has been a few taps of the keyboard away. The delusion then became two-fold: because we remember learning something, and can use a device to instantly access that something we once learned, we believe we know. And believing to know isn't knowledge. It's the beginning of hubris.
Here's the good news: hubris is the last gasp of any ideology. This mental position of too big to fail is – by definition – the suspension of learning. To borrow an idea coined by Nietzsche, hubris might be a signal of 'overcivilization'. It's decadent. And decadence is artificial.
Mama Nature dictates that humans are hardwired for lifelong learning. Her example also reminds us how all phenomena arise, transform, and return to a state of equilibrium.
This rise of human hubris is the first indication that a transformation is incoming and the restoration of balance is sure to follow. We can't know the timing of this sequence, but we can affect it.
The leadership at Kodak didn't get this. But you do.
So go lead.
And take pleasure in the freedom of humility that comes with it.
That’s where transformation begins.
TAGS: #Humility Is Human #Wisdom In Leadership #Radical Reframe #Change Is Our Nature #Adaptation As Innovation
Les Mottosky
Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.
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