When a fly decides to share our lunch by landing in our soup, we may immediately react by saying, “Get outta my soup!” In other words, an intruder, without invitation, unhesitatingly chooses at that moment to eat some of our soup. In the fly world, s/he is ‘one’ with everything around it and therefore thinks nothing about helping itself to what it thinks is meant to be shared!
When I think back over the years, I have, metaphorically speaking, had many flies in my soup.
Fly #1: My energy field was invaded by a leader who decided that a job promotion should go to a male colleague because he felt men were always more capable. This was more like a bee sting than a fly!
Fly #2 came when a senior leader wanted me fired because I wouldn’t kowtow to his unethical business dealings.
Fly #3 was the biggest fly. A group of people decided that they wanted to shut down our business. The reason? Jealousy, I suppose. They didn’t have anywhere near the technology or the science we had developed.
What types of flies have you had land in your ‘soup’ of life?
And what does one do when we get a fly in our soup no matter which area of life it is in: financial, spiritual, career, social, family, health or mental.
The four major leadership competencies of a strategic thinker are Systems Thinking, Visioning, Scanning the Environment and Scenario Planning. The competency of Systems Thinking is the first competency and best solution to activate when we get a fly in our soup. Systems thinking means that we analyze the situation from top to bottom.
Let’s take my Fly #1 for example. This are the steps a Systems Thinker would take to deal with such a fly.
In other words, we need to analyze where the system broke down. In addition, it is highly recommended we check to see which other systems were also affected. In the corporate world it might be HR policy that needs to be readdressed. At home, perhaps parents need to re-look at how well they role model for their children. Know what I mean?
When you think back to how many flies you have had in your soup, with how many do you feel justice was served and that justice prevailed?
Congrats if you “won”. If we didn’t win there could be a number of factors preventing the win. For example, the Senior Leader and HR person may be of a lower conscious awareness about what is right or wrong – their ability to discern right from wrong is not within reach of their emotional intelligence at this moment. Or, one or both coming from old school leadership, mistakenly believe that men are more capable in the leadership realm. Harrumph!
In conclusion, being a Systems Thinker and analyzing the whole situation can indeed help us win our case. Why? Because even lower consciousness people connect with logic. They may not understand the heart (feelings and ethics = EQ) piece but often will buy your argument if it is fact-based.
The 3 R’s of Systems Thinking for a strategic thinker are:
Responsibility (Find the ‘fly’. Ask yourself, what isn’t right here?)
Repair (Fix the ‘wrong’, make it right)
Re-Launch (Head for a new and better direction).
The next time a fly decides to enjoy your soup, thank him/her for coming into your life to help you remember the power of Systems Thinking! Then shoo it away!