Kill The Lists!!

I'm a bit angry today. I am depressed about my own field.

I've been in a couple of sessions recently where I've seen the result of the dreaded check-list being used as a panacea for problem solving and all future thinking. I was forced to politely disagree.

I see clients stuck in situations where they can only fail because of the conditioning that advisors and articles have created around their damned lists. They can only continue to fail if we can't get them out of that. They have been sold simple templates to solve problems. A list!. They are told that everything needs to be made simple. A list. So they are fed easy to populate templates and scorecards. The devilish 4-square/quadrant models. Sure - and they can draw hundreds of them on flip–charts to great applause. 

Well they don't work.

Sadly the industries desire to make things simple have led to a feeling that there is something bad about complexity and that everything can be reduced to simple lists. "The 7 things we need to know about this, that or the other." - "The 5 big ideas that will save your business." - "The 16 dimensions of becoming a great leader." - "The 8 principles for the perfect business model." Arghhh!! Stop!!! 

To get my own back I have produced a list.

1. Re-think the meaning behind the check-list.
2. Never believe check-lists that guarantee results.
3. Lists that remove the investigation into the fields they describe must be banned.
4. Complexity in business is a fact – it cannot be simplified into a list
5. Lists are guns in the hands of three-year olds
6. Lists must be challenged if they end at the 6th bullet
7. I prefer 7 things in a list

I get that we need to get to simple ways of thinking about things. 

I understand the idea of list and they have a place. But people need to understand that they only go so far. We need to analyse the exponential growth of things that need to get thought about these days but the list will not do it. The problem isn't with what is in the list – it is because it is a list. All too often it is just a check list. It suggest that all we need to do is to tick the box.

OK I am being extreme but I worry that the more we simply break things into lists the more they are superficially learned by rote and so the thinking stops. The calculation of what goes on between the items in the list is often missed. The opportunity for cleverness with what the lists don't yet show or might get surface is ignored. The meaning of the patterns that are involved within the descriptions get side-lined and we don't explore the unknowns or the finer aspects that were missed by the structure of lists. The important things that aren't on the list are just not on the list.

Dealing with complex enterprise and constantly moving situations is complex. That is what complexity is. Complex. It cannot be reduced to lists. Lists are OK to categorise areas of investigation but not at the expense of the investigation. Let's re-think the list. 

Posted via email from Just Thinking!