#229: Be a Problem (Finder)
Good morning friends
If you’re coming to the Cape this December, here are a few options to consider. For wine bars – Leo’s for edgy wines and a creative crowd, Culture for variety and some blockbusters, Furny’s for the joy of drinking great wine surrounded by milkwood trees and for tucked-away-urban-vibes, Vine and Dandy.
For the meat eaters, Rita Swart’s Fat Butcher in Stellenbosch can’t be beaten. If it is fully booked, try first-come-first-served Rust en Vrede. Lunch under the oaks is hardly horrible.
For spectacular views consider Cape Point Vineyard, Constantia Glen, Franschhoek’s Haute Cabriere or the Willaston Bar at the V&A’s Silo Hotel. Drop me a message if you’d like more, I am happy to help.
/strategy
Last week we discussed how having an optimism explanatory style is essential to creating the buoyancy needed for sustained success.
My clients will tell you I return often to the principle that life, both personal and in business, requires us to manage polarities. The idea is powerfully captured in Jim Collins’ formulation Reject the Tyrrany of the OR, and Embrace the Genius of the AND.
In that spirit, we turn to psychologists Jacob Getzel and James Jackson’s work on creativity.
They tell us, “The quality of the problem that is found is a forerunner of the quality of the solution that is attained… It is in fact the discovery and creation of problems rather than any superior knowledge, technical skill, or craftsmanship that often sets the creative person apart from others in his field”.
To create success, we must have the buoyant optimism that we will be able to find solutions, the patience not to reject possibilities too soon and the courage to uncover, confront and wrestle with problems.
Daniel Pink, who introduced me to their work in his To Sell is Human, concludes, “In subsequent research, they and other scholars found that people most disposed to creative breakthroughs in art, science, or any endeavour tend to be problem finders. These people sort through vast amounts of information and inputs, often from multiple disciplines; experiment with a variety of different approaches; are willing to switch directions in the course of a project; and often take longer than their counterparts to complete their work.”
So, take care to protect the problem finders. They’re an essential ingredient on any team. And remember, help them find the belief that change is possible. Success requires both.
//self
Another psychologist, Stephen Grosz, in The Examined Life, notes “Our weapon against negativity is not persuasion, it’s understanding”.
Often, we try to cajole ourselves into action. The same is true in companies. We declare ‘stretch goals’, ambitious targets, demand outcomes, but we are better served by slowing down, listening and exploring what is going on.
A fourth psychologist (what is going on today?), Thomas Moore (in Dark Nights of the Soul) puts it bluntly, “If you can’t think, reflect, and actively imagine your life into existence, you are condemned to a half-life of unconsciousness. You are mired in facts and information and opinions and slogans. In effect, you are imprisoned in the stale notions of a dead society.”
He also gives us a solution, “Imagination is everything… But the imagination can be old, tired, and irrelevant. It needs to be revived continually. You need to reform yourself at regular periods. Otherwise, you become soul-dead, and you live and act as though you were not alive”.
(You can read more from Grosz here and from Moore here).
///soul
Reading can help us revive our imaginations.
David Brooks’ (not a psychologist) How to Know a Person tell us “reading biographies or complex, character-driven novels and plays like Beloved or Macbeth, in which the reader gets enmeshed in the changing emotional life of the characters” builds empathy. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, detective stories and thrillers don’t have that effect.
I am happy that Reese Witherspoon chose Waorani Nation activist, Nemonte Nenquimo’s memoir for Reese’s Book Club November edition. We were six weeks ahead of them 😉 You can read about Nenquimo’s book in this letter. Her descriptions of the Ecuadorian rainforest will instantly enrich your imagination.
It’s booklist season. My favourite is NPR’s Best Books app. This year it has 351 recommendations, and you can filter by multiple categories. You’re sure to find something to read. A contender for my favourite book of the year is Caster Semenya’s The Race to Be Myself, which you can read about here.
Entirely different, but critically important, is Brittle Paper’s Palestine from Africa: A Syllabus.
And whilst, not a ‘books of 2024’, I loved Francesca Segal’s selection Books to Bring Comfort in Dark Times.
All the best
Karl
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