Odd couples, turns out, have more in common than you might think. Take Jim Collins and Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Collins writes books that flaunt his love for data and his search for the “truth” about the causes of human performance systems. He writes books that tell a story about performance based on his mountains of research. All done with the hope that the reader can replicate the “success” keys in their world. He preaches a predictable potion.
Taleb writes books that preach his message of the highly improbable, the unpredictable, and the foolishness of most attempts to explain what just happened. He makes an argument that we mostly explain the unexplainable after the fact in neat and tidy ways that are mostly myths. He believes we favor the narrated and avoid the abstract. To me, they seem to be coming from polar opposite perspectives.
Surprise, surprise.
Collins new book, titled How The Mighty Fall, should be interesting based on some of his recent rants. Inc. Magazine, last month, put out an interesting article where Collins said as follows:
…Of course, the truth is that it’s all ambiguous, anyway. If you think you can predict the future, you’re crazy. We’ve had a wake up call. Some people had it sooner than others. After the bubble burst in 2000, I was talking about the ideas in Good to Great with some portfolio companies of venture capitalists. They said, ‘This is all very interesting. But we’re running out of cash. The bubble’s burst. We’re going to die. What does your research have to say to us?’ Frankly, I had nothing to say except, Gee, bummer. But as I thought about it, I realized those technology companies were experiencing something that was going to happen to everybody, only most of us didn’t know it…
We’re heading into a world characterized by big events, big forces, massive storms. We’re going to be vulnerable little specks high on the mountain when the storm hits out of nowhere. And if we’re not prepared, we’re going to die up there…
We are now, I think, having to adjust to dealing with a world that is going to be ferocious. We don’t have any practice with that. People like me who grew up in the postwar period are not practiced at the volatilities, the turbulence, the uncertainties of the world that will probably define the second half of my life.”
Now compare that to Taleb ranting in his book, The Black Swan. Think about business, not just the war implications.
“Once upon a time, we were better at war. In a primitive environment, if someone is threatening me, I go kill him. And I get good results most of the time. Mediocristan, a place where it is hard to kill many people at once; a place where cause and effect are more closely connected. Homo Sapiens spent hundreds of thousands of years living in Mediocristan. We rarely needed to understand probability because, most of the time, life was simpler, and the range of possible events was narrower.
But today, we live in a place called Extremistan, subject to the tyranny of the singular, the accidental, the unseen and the unpredicted. Technology has allowed us to create weaponry that can strafe the planet in minutes.
Risk is often counterintuitive in Extremistan. Our old tricks don’t work.”
Seems to me these two polars are coming together. They seem to agree that the big swing we’re in at the present is not a singular “bump” in the road. Instead, it’s more like a long, turbulent, trans-atlantic flight. Buckle up. AND,
Remember the best preparation is to start to build you, your teams, and your leaders for this turbulent time.
NOW.
Normal leaders, when facing these facts, do NOT panic. Predictable, huh. Instead of panic they procrastinate. Actually, they become paralyzed with FEAR, and stop making decisions. They deny the need to change. Once they realize that change is inevitable, they delay the very decisions that must be made. By the time many leaders choose to decide, choose to act, the hour is late. The opportunity is past. The only way to avoid this plague is to practice.
PRACTICE.
More on that later…
For now, look in the mirror. Get out of denial, stop delaying, and start to make more decisions. Talk to your builders about the big decisions that everyone is waiting, watching, and wondering why you’re NOT already making.
Denial, Delay, Decidre.
Panic, Paralysis, Preparation.
Practice, Practice, Practice.
Make real decisions. Get yourself and your team prepared for an uncertain and turbulent time. AND, practice together with your team. Why? Because the best “early warning system” is built while getting tired with your teams in BTL practice. It’s called…
TRUST.
BUILT TO LEAD 
Wonderful observation, Chet! You’ve reminded me of a few great lines from other champions.
Muhammad Ali is as famous for his quips as he is for his fast hands and feet. But my favorite line of his reads, “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses — behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” Juma Ikangaa, a world-class marathon runner and trainer from Tanzania, once said, “The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.” And another remarkable, yet less known coach, tells my daughter and all the players in his elite tennis program, “Hit the shots you’ve been trained to hit. Matches are NOT the time for practice.”
I seems to me that there is but ONE lesson to be learned DURING the heat of battle. Whether you’re dancing in the ring or running in the streets of Boston; volleying across the net or across the negotiating table; cranking it out on the production floor or putting it together on the work site, there is ONE great lesson to be learned in the heat of battle: Were we ready? Were we PREPARED??
Those who answer YES know exactly why. It’s because, in Chet’s words, they first PRACTICED with each other, got good and TIRED with each other, and learned to TRUST each other. Those who answer NO, also know exactly why.