[Neurons] 2018 Neurons #11 THE PROBLEM WITH SUCCESS

Mon Feb 26 01:35:15 EST 2018

From: L. Michael Hall

2018 Neurons #11

February 26, 2018

Thinking is in Short Supply #6

**                                                                 

THE PROBLEM WITH SUCCESS

The problem with success is that when you succeed, when you develop a track
record of success and you develop a reputation- people will begin to assume
that you know what you're talking about and have insightful things to say
about everything.  But it is not true.  You do not know and can't say
insightful things about everything.  And worse still, as people assume that
your track record of success gives you particular advantage of
understanding, knowledge, and intelligence-they will stop questioning you
and stop challenging you.

This is a problem? you ask.  Well, obviously some people (maybe most people)
don't like being questioned and challenged- but the brightest and best do!
In fact, being challenged is what makes them the brightest and the best.
They get feedback, they get to wrestle with their ideas in the public
marketplace and out of that they come out more insightful, more robust, able
to make more refined distinctions, and more able to clearly communicate
their ideas.  They not only like feedback, they not only thrive on it, they
demand it.

Alfred Sloan, CEO of General Motors, is an excellent example of this.  When
he was running GM, whenever there was no one to disagree or oppose him on a
decision in the board room, he would postpone the decision altogether.  Why?
He thought that if there is a lack of dissent, it meant that the decision
had not been carefully considered and there may be too much groupthink.  He
knew that he needed someone would who pushed back on an idea and challenge
it.

What happens with success is that we and the people around us stop thinking.
Assuming that we now know, assuming that we now have the answers, assuming
that our guesses are top-notch, those around us start deferring.  They
become "Yes men."  They default on thinking assuming that the person in
charge will do the thinking.  And in groups, organizations, and
corporations, this leads to group-think.  And all of this is disastrous to
staying on the cutting-edge of creativity and innovation.

Success, like answers, actually cut off thinking.  Now true enough, we want
both.  We want answers and we want success, but there's a problem with each.
Both ends the search.  Both brings a halt to the inquiry and both closes the
ongoing development so that instead of developing a great answer or creating
a great success- we settle for mediocre answers and successes.

What's needed is real thinking.  And that means a healthy skepticism for
whatever answers we have so far and whatever successes we have achieved
to-date.  Just because we have an answer or or some success is not enough.
Test it.  To quote an old Bible verse:  "Test all things and hold fast to
that which is true." (I Thessalonians 5:23).  So ask questions:

What is the level of accuracy in this information?  Is it valid?  How valid?

              What is the level of relevance?   How pertinent is this
information for our question?

What is the level of sufficiency for this answer?  Is it thorough enough?
Could it be more?

Actually, success is not enough.  What if the success happened by accident?
By coincidence?  What if it happened by factors that you're not aware of?
In that case, you have no way of perpetuating the success or replicating it.
In that case, you really don't know the factors that played a key role in
the success and so there's no way that you can make it will last.  And
anyone who is impressed with the success and who asks you about it will be
getting pseudo-information.

Sometimes a person or a corporation succeeded because it of the zeitgeist
(the spirit of the times).  It was the right moment.  Anyone with almost any
offering would have been an instant success given where the markets were and
what you were offering.  So if you are not engaged in real thinking and
understanding and intelligence- not only will you be deceived about the
reasons for your success, you will have a false confidence for continuing it
or reproducing it.  Not good.

Because success tempts people to stop thinking, they focus on the
end-results rather than the process that created the end-results.  This
reveals yet another problem and danger in thinking -results thinking.  Now
certainly we all want results, but if your thinking is about the end-values
and not the means-values, we can very easily set ourselves up for unethical
practices by over-caring too much on the end results.

Succeeding to reach a goal, in and of itself, is not enough.  Don't be
satisfied just because you got the results that you set out to achieve.
Engage in some deeper and more profound thinking.  Consider the process and
the "critical success factors."  Can you specify the actual processes that
you engaged in that made the difference?  Aim for a deep mindfulness.

NSTT --- THIS YEAR IN THE USA --- COLORADO!

.        July 1-15.

.        If interested, write to me at meta at acsol.net 

.        See the articles on Becoming a Neuro-Semantic (NLP) Trainer on the
website.

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

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