Let's build a Pyramid. Awesome, Yeah! Let's Go! - wicked. Whoo Hoo! This has to work in some way, shape or form. Great idea. It will amaze and shock. It will live forever. Every day since we were fish (maybe even a week or two earlier), we set about creating value so as to survive. We worked hard to add more richness to each of our lives. We did it through improvement in some way, shape or form. Individually or collectively. That's all there is to it right? That's it. What else is there? As a species we are all about combining efforts in some way – to survive and improve. Amazing if you stop to think about it. We all have different reasons and ways to go about it of course. In business we combine so that change or performance gets increased - hopefully recognized and valued by the world. In society it's so that we have a rewarding world in which our kids are safe and educated to enjoy a balanced and worthwhile life. Or we don't and we try to kill each other. We have got pretty amazing at that too. I don't think I am the only one who felt physical nausea at the slogan of 'shock and awe' applied to a recent invasion of utter deceit and stupidity. Given the opportunity (or good reason) to get our minds wrapped around any given topic we can make magic happen. Alchemy. If we put our minds to it then we can carry that energy on into ever more remarkable territory. Outstanding. Problem is we seem to have lost our way a bit. Well - it comes down to the ‘way’, ‘shape’ or ‘form’ in which we do it. Doesn't it always?
Yep and therein lies the big snag. Holy crap. We are dreadful at agreeing the way, the shape and the form and getting worse in countless cases. In my experience we need way more focus or caffeine (or electric shock treatment). So many brave attempts at change come unstuck because we never agreed the way, the shape or the form in which each participant would operate. Let alone co-operate. What do we mean by way, shape or form these days? It's easy to say. I hear it all the time. It’s completely lost it’s original and vital meaning.
For me shape is truly that. What does the thing look like? Can we prod at its corners and edges? Could we hit it with a stick? Take a photograph of it. Draw a picture in the sand. Define its colors precisely with Pantone swatches. Can we walk around it? Lean against it - explain its design! Well can we? And if we could would we all be better able to agree that it's the awesome thing we all want to create? Of course we would! And the form, well the same thing really. In the 21st Century this would cover the media it arrives by/through, the choice of specific materials with which it gets made, the stuff around it to support its existence. Its eco-system - its value network. Surely if we could see and share in that expression we would stand a better shot at success correct? - Yep!!! And the way? Well now it gets sporty. Subjectivity will kill us here if we can't all agree on the way. My way or the highway meets let's create a shared way to build the Pyramids. How we do anything is as important if not more important than the what. How you pass that granite rock up to that chap in a loin cloth chopping away at that boulder thing with those trees rolling underneath to shift it all is paramount. It could all go horribly wrong. Without a shared way it does. Frequently. So the triangle of way, shape and form is considerably more than the simple sound-byte we all trot out. It's a multi-dimensional puzzle that needs to be exceedingly well thought through. It's so much a three dimensional triangle in fact let's think of it as a pyramid. Awesome!
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