The Hand Obsessed.

I can't read your writing - I must kill you.

Remarkable to think that the quality of one's handwriting has so much to do with strategic progress and business performance. And then again quite understandable. If someone stood in front of you for 3 days and took down your thoughts on a wall like your doctor wrote his prescriptions, or a mad professor who would assault your brain in a chalkboard scrawl - what would you think? Could you think? Would it aid your development of ideas - your ability to process and be more creative?

Would it speed your recovery if you couldn't refer back to the work done a couple of hours earlier? Well maybe. Less than ideal though.  Indeed I have noticed that if the letters and spaces are not ideal - the idea is not as believable. Not honored. If I am slightly out with the spaces around the words and the boxes I put around them, again the point has less gravity, not so much meaning or purpose. I can feel the lack of power conveyed.

I've observed a strong correlation between quality thinking and precise handwriting.

I've known this for a while but it's really become a bit of a major study for me. I'm gonna do courses on it!

So here's an illustration of why good handwriting and clear thinking matters and are directly related.

Picture the scene -

 15 or 20 executives trying to solve a complex problem in a collaborative way. At least starting that incredible journey - to land on a single page with a vision, a strategy and a plan to go execute. Oh and attempt to do that in the 2 or 3 days together.

I'm working with a team - 'writing' the ideas we are discussing into the framework as we go. I have countless options. Write verbatim - a sentence that comes close, shorten the idea more smartly into a similar yet crisp idea. Capture the rough essence of it with the intention of cleaning it up later. 

None of the above comes close to what really needs to happen to avoid lazy generalisms, semantic bingo and certain death. (To me or the strategy).

In each day's creative thinking (for 15/20 executives) there are typically between 400 to 500 'expressions of note' - That is to say the number of correct answers distilled from the thousands of parts of the key conversations. Each valid one makes it to the framework. In each day there are 4/5 deep delves into aspects of the problem being worked. That adds up to 1500 'expressions of note' over 3 days. Each one deeply meaningful and needing clear definition.

So over the course of a program of work - leaving any doubt or disagreement of the word/phrase – then disaster is likely to strike. A desperate unravelling can occur. Answers need crafting within the context of the problem being solved.  

I have to translate the idea perfectly into the correct and agreed phrase and write the words in a sharp, legible and highly engineered handwritten form if i'm to survive . The writing must be legible from 30 feet and be as enjoyable to read and as perfectly formed as is humanly possible. And then some.

Anyway food for thought – drawing conclusions!

Posted via email from Just Thinking!