Do we understand the system? Does the system start when a requisition enters our door and end when the purchase order goes out, or is the system much more encompassing?
The management of flow is somewhat a lost art. We can chose to believe that flow is a production-only issue. Or we can see flow in every activity we perform.
When I talk about context, I like to remind people that, in evaluating the contrasting approaches of pro-action and reaction, we have clear options. If we choose reaction, context will shape our behavior. But in the proactive model, it's the other way around. In that model, we behave in a way that enables us to shape our context.
Have we mastered context, flow, and systems? Are we toweringly competent?
When I look at towering competence in terms of skills, I identify three essential ones; technical, contextual, and communications.
Technical skills are those necessary to master appropriate systems, flows and methodologies.
Contextual skills involve the mastery of the dynamics of the situation, which means understanding them rather than trying to control them. Most of us are very good at the controlling part. It's the understanding where we run into difficulty.
Communication skills involve the masterful articulation of needs and ends through multiple levels. If we think about it, we realize that communication is a multi-sensual affair. It can be visual, auditory, or tactile or a combination. (Any of us who have had the misfortune to mistake a skunk for a cat knows it can also be olfactory!) We also realize, since communications is a two-way street we can speak and listen, or write and read that we learn through communication. And we'll realize that we have our favored ways to learn, which may not be shared by others.
Aristotle, for example, believed that the most effective method for learning was visual. It's true that some of us learn best by reading or watching, but others might learn more effectively by hearing. Some have to touch and manipulate. In fact, the best way to communicate and learn it to employ all the senses. The point is that how all of us learn doesn't have to be in the same way. What's important is that we engage in a process of continual learning.
This is a good place to point out, especially to the rational, logical guys who are reading this, that your intuition is there and it's trying to communicate with you. How it's going to communicate may be through some method other than visual. It may be vocal the voice of that secret self I mentioned earlier, the voice of your intuition.
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