Collective Thinking, Smart Business

Good Ideas Are Everywhere

The saying, "two heads are better than one" is a very serious thing.  Most of the 'self-taught' business leaders I know are also very narrow in how they allow others to influence their mind work.  'Self-taught' business leaders are stubborn individuals from the get go.  I am one of those 'self-taught' business leaders.  I know one when I see one.  It was my stubbornness that led me to become an independent, 'self-taught' business leaders.  Most 'self-taught' business leaders could not, or better yet, would not work for anyone else.  They are usually wired so strongly to be independent that they do not have the daily skills nor the proper set of personality skills to work below someone else.  Most 'self-taught' business leaders need to be 'in-charge' of the operations.  It is something they personally demand.  As a result, they become driven to dominate the decisions made.  They need to do their own thing.  They could not permit someone else to tell them what to do.  They do not like anyone else to guide their decision-making roles.

The business world is chuck full of these individuals.  They lead and operate business models everywhere.  Some become quite good at it while others fail terribly.  I am one of those 'self-taught' business leaders who has learned how to work well for someone else.  I have worked hard on the process to develop better leadership skills.  I can quietly remain in the background and watch other leaders do their thing.  It becomes a very useful school for me to witness.  It is reality at work.  There are no theories when I watch another business leader do what they do to try to win at the business game.  I get to see the process they use and the outcomes that arrive.  It becomes the best school in the business world.  Sadly, too many 'self-taught' business leaders are circling the business world.  Most of the results they produce come to the surface under par.  The top of the business success world is not filled with very many 'self-taught', independent business leaders.  Very few of them are able to develop the most comprehensive, competitive and necessary skills to sustain a long and profitable string of successful business results.  Their desire for independence gets in the way.  They are not known for accepting the advice of others in their path of work.

Independence usually means individual.  Individual does not generally mean collective thinking.  When the idea of collective thinking becomes available, most 'self-taught' business leaders drive away from its potential.  They prefer to do their own thing.  They prefer to make their own assessments.  They prefer to evaluate their own paths, their own examinations and to measure their own ways to define their outcomes.  They will only use other opinions when those opinions can support what they already have determined they want to do.  'Self-taught' independent business leaders are not experts at using collective thinking.  They are experts at pretending to use collective thinking.  There is a huge difference between these two concepts.

I have seen both sides of this kind of leadership at work.  I have witnessed the work of those business leaders who are very good at using collective thinking well.  I have also witnessed the work of those independent business owners who are not very good at using collective thinking well.  The first group always performs more successfully.  In every single case I witnessed, the second group struggles more often with profitability than the first group.  No contest.  The differences are plain and very evident.  Unfortunately, the 'self-taught' independent business leaders will object with those findings very strongly.  That is primarily what keeps them glued to their independence ways.  They practice creative ways to avoid real collective thinking.

The truth remains, the 'self-taught' business leaders are too independent to allow others the right to dominate any of their business thinking.  They are far more comfortable making their own decisions rather than allowing anyone else to help them make the decisions they deliver.  They will strongly protect this pattern even when the results are less profitable.  That is exactly the main reason why so many 'self-taught' independent business leaders do not end up on the top of the business world with results that reflect great success.  Their limits to great business success are self imposed.  They are masters at protecting those results.  It is not smart business but they will work overtime making sure it looks smart.  It is an amazing thing to watch happen.  I know a lot about this subject matter.  I are one!

I was once on the other side of the collective thinking fence.  I was the independent guru.  There are very few strong, 'self-taught' business leaders who could 'out-gun' me on the idea of avoiding collective thinking.  I was that master.  I was very creative in how I could do what I wanted to do in all of my final decisions.  I was not open to any other ways, any other ideas nor any other thoughts that came to the surface in my business affairs.  I made it very clear how the final decision was always mine.  Guess what that produced?  A lot less victories than what should have occurred.  Almost every single time!  I creatively passed up a lot of great opportunities in my business trek to success.  I failed enough to fill many libraries full of books on how 'not to do it.'  Stubbornness is a disease.  It works like cancer.  It kills collective thinking.  It kills opportunities for simple success.  How do we curb this deadly disease?  How do we get smarter in our business affairs?  How do we learn how to properly engage collective thinking?

Start Harvesting All Of The Good Ideas Growing Around Your Business Model

I own two really good paint sprayers.  One of them is a commercial grade unit that cost me a few hundred dollars to own.  It is a wheeled cart with a large paint container attached.  The other one is a smaller version that can be used to do small time paint jobs.  I spent nearly six hundred dollars to purchase these two brand name paint sprayers.  They make a lot of noise when they operate, too.  The wheeled one is not so convenient to use around landscaped environments like mine.  It works better on smooth surfaces that are more like concrete.  The wheels are small so pulling it around behind you is a little bit of a chore.  It has a nice handle set-up to help make the pulling easier, however.

On both of my sprayers it requires quite a bit of flushing techniques to make sure the nozzles remain clear and open after the painting is finished.  There are specific steps that must be followed to make sure the springs and the nozzles do not get dried up and clogged with old, drying paint material.  I have made the mistake of not following the instructions for clean up very closely and spent several hours cleaning the sprayer nozzles and spring sets to release them from sticking on the next paint job I performed later.  Proper time spent on clean up is king if you plan to use the sprayers efficiently the next time.  Trust me on that one.  In fact, once I had to go purchase new spring parts to help the expensive sprayer work better.  It was too sensitive and did not spray evenly since I did not clean it up properly after one of its uses.  Both paint sprayers are very demanding pieces of equipment.  They work great when they work great.  They are a pain in the rear when their maintenance is not given the right kind of time, effort and follow-up.

Last weekend we had some nice weather roll around.  My wife and I spent the weekend touching up our landscaped yard.  We have been chipping away at it for several weekends.  We are well ahead of the demand curve and our yard looks very nice.  Since we were ahead of the maintenance curve on the yard work, we decided to do some added repairs.  We have wanted to seal coat the cedar fencing on the property line.  It has been something that we needed to do for the past two years.  I have been putting it off a couple of years because the two paint sprayers I own require so much care and follow-up that it kind of discourages me from doing that little job.  The last time we seal coated the cedar fencing, my wife spent a couple of days using a brush.  It took her hours to do that job.

We had a small fire cranked up in one of our fire pits and were sitting in our chairs discussing the courage to go paint that cedar fence.  She recalled how much time she spent using the brush.  She knows the extra work required by the paint sprayers.  She started to describe to me how the two of us could kill that project this weekend, together.  I was game.  As we got up she asked me a simple question.  Would one of the cheap one gallon yard sprayers do a good job painting that fence?  I stopped in my tracks and said, who knows?  She said she asked this question because they have new ones on sale for about ten bucks at one of our neighborhood stores.  That is less than what I last paid for the new spring set on the expensive paint sprayer I last repaired.  I said, let's go get one and give it a try.

Two hours later we were done with the spraying project on the cedar fence line, both sides, and sitting back by the fire with an already cleaned...new, cheap...one gallon garden sprayer...and she did not do any of the work.  Included in that two hour time frame was the trip to and from the local store to purchase the cheap garden sprayer.  Go figure.  Learn the wonderful art of collective thinking.  It will always save you time and money.  I do not know a single business who could not benefit greatly from the art of saving more time and money.  Collective thinking is one of the the key components to that kind of success pattern.  Quit trying to do everything your way.  Quit trying to do everything in the proper way.  Quit trying to control every step of work your business does in the way you have always done it.  Quit trying to be the one in control.  Quit pretending that you are allowing their ideas some interest, get out of the way!  They are not faked out.  They already know that you are a control freak and that you placate them poorly.  Get out of the way.

Truthfully...step out of the box, as they say, and start listening to the suggestions others are sharing.  Do not get too analogical about how others view what works.  Develop the wonderful art of great leadership and begin to use the ideas others have shared.  Start heading to work with a new goal in mind.  Make up your mind to add one thing each day that someone else suggested.  Make it a serious goal in the work patterns of your daily steps.  Start using their ideas.  Make sure you offer proper credit where credit is due.  Make sure you engage others into the process of collective thinking.  Do not show favorites and reward appropriately.  Open up the wonderful doors of collective thinking.  The simple stuff will start to work well again.  It is smart business.  Go ahead, disappear from the kings role and allow all of your staff to become the great leaders they so want to be.  Get better prepared to guide them in that learning process.  Become the new business leader that helps teach them how to lead properly.  With proper leading, proper teaching and proper permissions for collective thinking routines you will soon discover more time available for doing some pleasure things in your life.  We sat by the fire for several hours discussing so many wonderful things this weekend...and our cedar fence was completely renewed.

Collective thinking.  I wonder if it works?  By the way...clean up was a cinch.  We ran a little mineral spirits through the sprayer for about two minutes.  It was good to go for the next time.  No extra effort, no extra spring parts and no high maintenance demands.  Ten bucks, forty minutes of painting and that was it.  I filled it three times with the cedar sealant.  It looks great and is all done.  I like winning.  Collective thinking.  I wonder if it works? 

Until next time...