Scheduled Delays

I was through security and on my way to the gate when I got the notification—my flight was delayed due to weather at my connecting city. Never mind having to get to the airport significantly before departure to negotiate security and all that; delays can make an already long and frustrating day of travel even more challenging.

Watching my fellow travelers during this delay made me think about the various ways I might show up and respond to challenges in my areas of responsibility. Let’s look at a few:

The Escalator. This person believes that if they amp it up, things will change in a way that benefits them. They demand, raise the volume, threaten, and generally behave poorly. They are usually taking their frustration out on people who cannot change the situation even if they wanted to—and this type of behavior does not make them want to.

The Subversive. This person won’t confront anyone directly, but that doesn’t keep them from telling everyone within earshot what they think. They have lots of opinions about what should be done, what shouldn’t have been done, who is to blame, and how those people should be made to suffer. The quieter they whisper, the more dangerous they are.

The Mitigator. The minute the problem is apparent, they spring into action, letting everyone in their sphere of influence know that plans are changing. Twenty phone calls later, they have involved dozens of people in a situation they can’t influence, creating extra work and interruption for many of them—all to make sure everyone knows how important the Mitigator is.

There is, however, another option. Let’s call this person The Sage. Like an apple falling to the ground because of gravity, the universe operates in accordance with laws that regulate the behavior of everything. All that has come before leads inevitably to what happens next. The Sage understands this and puts their effort into responding—and being—in a way that creates the best potential future.

The best time to plant a tree was 40 years ago. The second-best time is now.

It is mostly too late to change the present moment. Try to enjoy it. However, it is never too late to influence the future. Leaders are always working on the future, not reacting to the present.

Before you send me emails, let me explain. If the house is on fire, put the fire out. If you’re hungry, eat. Take care of necessary functions (yelling at the gate agent is never a necessary function). Don’t make the necessary functions of the present the determinant of your future actions.

If we want the future to be different, we must seek to understand how the system works so we can create the string of inputs and actions that lead to better future outcomes. When we don’t get what we are trying to accomplish, or outcomes seem chaotic, it simply means we don’t see enough of the system to understand why it operated this way.

Now, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. I’ll give you the bad first so we can end on a happy note…

We will never see the whole system. We could have a long and complex discussion about why this is true, but history, human experience, and logic all point to the reality that we never know everything impacting the “system” and, therefore, can never predict all outcomes.

Now for the good news. If we focus on what we can control—our thoughts, judgments, and actions—while accepting what we cannot control, we can live at peace regardless of external circumstances. In other words, do what you can and let go of the rest. This is not fatalism or determinism, where you can’t change the future, because you can control some things (mostly yourself), and your actions and beliefs do impact the future.

Things happen as they should. My delay was “scheduled” in that it was the result of a complex system of inputs that led to a specific result. The fact that I can’t see the system doesn’t keep it from working any more than my thoughts about gravity will keep the apple from falling. Great leaders focus on creating the kinds of beliefs, thoughts, and actions in themselves and their teams that lead to desired outcomes. Accepting the present (and by extension, the past) and working for a better future is The Bison Way.