Are we falling or flying …

Even while in grade school, I was aware my thought process was different than those of my friends, for whom A + B + C + D almost always = E.

I, on the other hand, often reached a conclusion where A + B + C +  D + x + y = Z.

I wasn’t always aware of how I reached Z; and yet Z was still a solid, and sometimes even great, solution.  But for much of my life I have been aware my reasoning process is very different from many people I know.

My friend Susan was genetically preprogrammed to be an amazing technology program manager; and her thought processes are very logical and very very organized.  She was convinced there was a logical process behind how I think, although it often seemed to her I made several illogical jumps between the input and my final output. 

After several years of study to understand how I think, one day she said “You are a systems thinker,” and suggested I read Peter Senge’s “The Fifth Discipline.”

After a pause, she said “That is supposed to be the Holy Grail” for problem solving. 

Wow.  Who knew?

Not only was my previously unfollowable method of reasoning finally identified, it is also considered good, too.

Although - one of my former teammates in a past life, a top kernel level developers/architect had told me that as well.  At that time, I thought “hmmm, that’s interesting,” but didn’t think much more about it.

Since Susan referenced a specific book, I ran out and bought it; then very slooooowly worked my way though it.  Finally this past Christmas I brought it with me while on vacation visiting my family in south Florida.  The often unpredictable December weather turned out gorgeous and I spent six happy days at the beach, barrelling my way through that book.

Wow.  You should read it, too.

The Cliff Notes version is The Laws of the Fifth Discipline:

• 1) Today’s problems come from yesterday’s “solutions.”
• 2) The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back.
• 3) Behavior will grow worse before it grows better.
• 4) The easy way out usually leads back in.
• 5) The cure can be worse than the disease.
• 6) Faster is slower.
• 7) Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space.
• 8) Small changes can produce big results…but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.
• 9) You can have your cake and eat it too -but not all at once.
• 10) Dividing an elephant in half does not produce two small elephants.
• 11) There is no blame.

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am .  - Albert Einstein