As a systems and Industrial engineer, I realize that one can design a system that can do many things but not everything. Making tradeoffs is an integral part of any design process. The cheetah can run at lightning speeds during the chase but has to sit down to catch its breath immediately after the kill ..i.e., it cannot eat its kill right away. And while its catching its breath, a bunch of hyenas in the vicinity, those shameless scavengers of the wild, can make off with the cheetah's hard earned dinner!
So, it appears, every system has some inherent strengths and invariably some vulnerabilities or flaws. The lion is an awesome hunter on the ground, can climb trees and is a demolition machine in a fist fight, but it cannot fly, it cannot stay underwater like the crocodile and it cannot bring down trees like the elephant. The PC cannot do everything the MAC does and vice-versa.
One also cannot help noticing that there seems to be a certain logic to every natural system. The cheetah's body, hunting technique, habitat, choice of food, social life, parenting techniques...everything seems to fit together. So also in the case of the lion and the crocodile.
What if the cheetah hired a consultant to discover the best practices of the lion society, the croc society and the maybe even the human society? Would the cheetah then idolize, say the lion and become a lion?
My guess would be that the cheetah can adopt the best practices of all the societies on earth and become a better cheetah.
Thus, we need to find what our core is and hold on to that while we can incorporate the best aspects of the people we admire or the people we would like to be...only to grow into a better version of what we are.
After coaching presidents, owners and CEO's of high growth companies in the US, I have to the conclusion that the scientist CEO may never become the leader CEO and the pharmacist president may never become the leader president. Wisdom lies in first recognizing your core and then compare it with the needs of your organization and where there is a gap between what your organization needs and what you can provide individually, its time to make room for other people who can complement your core. In any case, no individual can single handedly provide everything that an organization needs. It appears that nature has mandated that human beings must work in teams and diversity is not a luxury but an absolute necessity - diversity in terms of personality type, education, experience, skills and ethnicity.
What do you think?
- Original Mind
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