Cracking the Code on How Work Moves Through Your Business
The Parable of the Blind Men and The Elephant is an ancient Indian parable that recounts a story of a group of blind men who had previously never encountered an elephant but begin to imagine what an elephant is like from each of them recounting touching a different part of the elephant. The man who touched the trunk describes the elephant as a thick snake, yet the man who touched the elephant’s ear describes the elephant as a fan, whereas the man who touches the elephant’s side describes the elephant as being wall-like. The parable continues with the men inevitably disagreeing, suspecting the others of being untruthful, and even coming to blows!
This parable is an apt illustration of how different people in a business see the work of their organization getting done - often they really only recognize and only appreciate the parts of the work they are involved in, not the entire set of stages work needs to pass through to be done properly. It truly takes a village of the different geniuses, spread across the three stages of work for work to pass through an organization as efficiently and effectively as possible.
How the Three Stages of Work Help Us All See All of the Elephant
Stage 1: Ideation
The geniuses involved in the Activation stage are Wonder & Invention. When an organization does this stage well they are ensuring that they are appropriately asking the right questions, challenging the status quo and bringing new ideas to the world, thereby avoiding stagnation and irrelevance as an ever changing world is trying to pass them by.
Stage 2:Activation
To ensure this stage is done well requires the geniuses of Discernment & Galvanizing. The ideation phase may have come up with a really great prototype idea or product, but first needs the genius of discernment to see what the shortcomings are and how it can be improved; once the discerner's feedback is incorporated a better version of the prototype can be created, before moving the idea into production. Once the first genius of the first three types of working genius have applied their superpower to the idea, the Galvanizer can now begin to rally the troops to undertake the work needed to see the idea become reality.
Stage 3:Implementation
The greatest ideas don’t amount to much unless they are fully brought to life. This is where those with the genius of Enablement ensure everyone involved in the implementation stage has what they need to get the job done, setting up those with the genius of Tenacity to fully bring the idea to life.
The Costly Mistake of Bypassing Activation
Entrepreneurs typically excel at ideation, coming up with a great idea that in their mind is as good as 100% complete with the market unable to get enough of this great new idea. The entrepreneur thinks that all that needs to be done is just give his or her team the concept, and the doers in the business will just make it happen. But the doers should only be executing plans that have been thoroughly vetted (Discernment), as those with the Genius of Tenacity do their best work then they follow the plan, not create the plan. Further, the old adage “Measure twice, cut once” is apt to explain the importance of this stage of work. To ensure the best use of time & other resources in the doing of your business’ work, ensuring “Activation” is done as well as possible will result in better outcomes and a higher probability of avoiding adverse outcomes.
To continue learning about Working Genius check out the additional blog posts in this series
The Categories of Working Genius
When Your Working Genius is Missing or Misused
Working Genius for Leaders
How Working Genius Makes Meetings More Effective
The Picture that Paints a Thousand Words: The Working Genius Team Map
About the Author
Tom Barrett is a Leadership Team Coach based in Nashville, TN. He is a Certified Scaling Up Coach™, Certified Pinnacle Business Guide, & former Certified EOS Implementer™. Additionally, he is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator. Tom guides his clients by continually implementing the tools that they need to get to the next level by drawing from the best tools no matter where they are found.
