The Information Resistance Paradox

Ominous sounding name, but it is a concept that we all know: We'd like to be cutting edge thinkers, breaking new barriers, leading the vanguard of change in our companies and industries, but gee, I kinda have a meeting, some phone calls to return and then I have to go drop off a proposal and. . .

Such is life. But if we are all too busy for business, when does "progress" get done? When and how do new, valuable ideas for our companies and clients get thought up, passed around, adjusted, tested and implemented? When do OUR parades come, instead of us simply following behind someone else's fiesta with a shovel and a bucket?

Well, we're all busy. But somehow, we're never too busy to make time for that which we love or are deeply engaged with. Learning can be that way. Oddly enough, in this time we call the Information Age, there are more facts, discoveries, theories and new opportunities for learning than at any time in the history of anybody.

And that's the problem. Too many choices, not enough filters or grading systems to help us prioritize our focus or energy in the face of the onslaught. We're busy. We're suspicious. We're all tired.

Until... the "right" thing comes along.

Let's break it down:

We want "new," but we don't want to be taught. Advertising and marketing for example, at their core, are teaching. As practiced by 90% of the world, it's teaching done poorly. It offers all the excitement and interest we recall from our 11th grade reading and discussion of the old English classic, Beowulf. Zzzzzzz.

As business leaders, we find ourselves endorsing--make that mandating--the equivalent of insisting our customers eat their spinach when we offer education in the form of advertising.

* We're awash in opinions and information--alternatives and challenges to our assumptions of how things work. The more information, the higher our mental sanity/sentry wall.

* Teaching/sharing of information is viewed with suspicion by all thanks to its co-option by commerce. We've all been victims of educatinal bait and switch, resulting in the disappointing revelation at some point that, "oh....damn, they're just trying to sell me something."

* Dilemma - a reflexive, baby-with-the-bathwater protective response, yet, a reality nonetheless: good products remain undiscovered, helpful messages go unheard.

* Challenge - Overcoming the mental sentry wall requires an understanding that it's built with three different kinds of "bricks":

BRICK 1. A presumption that "I already know most of what I need to know to function effectively." Another way this idea gets circulated is "It may not be perfect, it may be ugly, but if it aint broke, don't fix it."

BRICK 2. A self-reinforcing "perception/reality" loop: I resist --> I acquiesce --> I buy (or buy into) --> I'm disappointed --> Therefore, I resist again-->

BRICK 3. Finally, there is a "Complexity/Personality" loop: "Simple is easier-->simple is more effective-->I'm not good at hard things-->Therefore, complexity/nuance is wasteful.

IF:

There is no "useful" new information; if new ideas are viewed with suspicion as being only commercially motivated and only beneficial to the deliverer, not the receiver; if prescriptive thought is an absent skill or one we don't have the time or inclination to practice...

SO:

How does progress occur?
How does innovation get accepted?
How do we become parents or portents of beneficial and profitable change if we're not even willing to date?

THEN:

Remove the bricks, perhaps starting backwards, Number 3 first.

Entertain the idea that "simple" is not easier, just more intuitive. It's just more obvious on its face--once you *really* know what corporate anatomy and musculature supports that face. It is natural, it "fits". But we only learn this through the process of discovery. "Simple" often reveals itself after years of trying. We finally get "the point." This can take a nanosecond--the "click", the moment of recognition--or, it can take years. Since action is what we're looking for in business, let's focus on the former.

What, exacly, is a "click" moment? It's that time when your mental and emotional picture of something aligns perfectly over the top of someone else's worldview. You're sympatico on the levels that matter to you both. (Two, or 258 million.)

All well and good, but how do you replicate something as nebulous as that?

Well, since this is about connecting in a meaningful, profitable way with your fellow man, why not start by asking what does meaningful mean? How do they judge people, places, events and things? (Yes, your product or service is a "thing" but lets not get ahead of ourselves.)

Meaning, for many, is just by a set of ethical benchmarks that vary from person to person in their weight, but carry a common credibility for us all. Psychiatrists call them ethical norms; philosophers call them intrinsic goods, theologians call them virtues (and sins).

Truth, justice, faith, beauty, merit, compassion, inspiration are all things we wish for ourselves and admire in others. Although they are high-minded (and what's so dumb about exploring that in our businesses?), you'll notice omnipotence, perfection and the ability to fly like Superman weren't in the group. That's because these are real, deep, personal perceptions for realistic people. These ideals are ingrained as elements of character to shoot for and to judge the actions and statements of others by.

As realists, busy ones, these same people are often frustrated in achieving these things by their circumstances or surroundings, but that doesn't make them any less salient or vital to their inner lives and dreams. Just the opposite, it makes these things more powerful. If a person, place or thing demonstrates to our satisfaction that they share our “values sliderule”, then trust results--and those bricks begin falling away.

In their place, this confirmation of shared purpose resulting from real conversations about the building blocks of purpose--ideals--leads to the formation of bonds. And bonds are the only rare commodity in this world. Perhaps that makes them an anti-commodity, which, relative to business is another valuable reason to take them seriously. And bonds, as we've noted elsewhere, generate communities. And, another word for community is company. Or city. Or brand.

Company. City. Brand.

For the better balanced ones at least, our perception of those three seemingly separate entities, our reverence and jealous protection, care and feeding of them comes from the same place in our hearts and in our brains: They matter to us, because in large ways or small, they demonstrate another rarity: Truth. In ways simple, continued and authentic, they show that we matter to them by measuring and representing themselves with the only metric that matters to us: Encouragement.

Truth and Encouragement. Character bundled within Humanity. A proxy for You.

"The right thing" that comes along and knocks down walls. And rekindles belief and renews energy.

Who knows, sometimes, it may even be brought to you by Company ABC or City XYZ.