Musings at Altitude

Many of us have heard the old Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times.”  Unfortunately, many of us may actually believe we’re living under that curse today!  I certainly do on the days that I’m enmeshed in bureaucracy and seemingly glued to my current place and time with no apparent prospect for any form of business momentum in any direction I look.  I also definitely feel this way when I’m slowly sinking in that business quicksand and every action I take just seems to accelerate my sinking into the abyss of business malaise.

Being honest, I despise those events that take me to such low levels.  In fact, I become part of the problem and an accelerant to the malaise when I let myself sink under the Chinese curse.

So I have a theory.  In networking, we talk about degrees of separation and how we’re no further than six degrees of separation from anyone we need to be in contact with.  Let’s modify that just a little bit and ponder the idea that in overcoming the curse or defying the malaise of business insanity, we’re really only two degrees of separation from something joyful that reaches down deep inside us and pulls us out of that desperate and sinking feeling.

That happened to me today.  When things earlier this week brought me down and caused me to feel like I was straining under the burden of business insanity, I metaphorically looked in every direction and saw no clear step to lift me out of the business quicksand that I was in.  So inadvertently, I looked beyond those first reachable and yet still cumbersome steps and mentally leaped to the near nirvanic foothold beyond.  Surprisingly, I found peace.  By looking beyond the issue of the day and focusing on the real purpose of our business existence, I mentally and emotionally lifted myself back up and smiled in knowing that the insanity was not permanent and the purpose would always prevail.

This relief occurred because I was sucked into conversations that reminded me of the real reason I jumped at the chance to be part of this journey in the first place.  And though “we live in interesting times” and we’re faced so often with the insanity of actions that really bring us down, typically, just two degrees of separation away from our quicksand is that clear and compelling purpose that focuses our vision, gives us hope, and provides that ladder or limb that anchors us as we climb out of the sinking sand and fortifies us as we reach forward and leave that malaise behind.

In great organizations, team members are constantly looking for those who may be sinking.  When a sinker is found, great team members jump in and provide that metaphorical leap to that two degree reference so those sinking can reach out and grab that future and heave themselves past that potentially devastating first step.  Once beyond that first degree of separation, phenomenal team members can then provide the once previously sinking individual a firmly grounded next step that allows that team member to focus forward and not sink back into the abyss. 

I want to be that two degree anchor for those struggling with business issues today.  To do that effectively though, I have to anchor myself out of the quicksand and fortify my position by focusing on our common purpose.  I also have to realize that I need to reach out to others who can reach back and constantly anchor me as I then reach back to yank others forward and out of their own personal malaise. 

There seems to be something very special about reaching back for others.  And there seems to be something even more special about anchoring on that purpose and fortifying that anchor by reaching out and grabbing on to others who also have desperately attached themselves to that same purpose.

Who knows, maybe through anchoring on our purpose we defy the curse?  If nothing else, we most certainly move towards the positive side of “we live in interesting times”.