Comments

Tom, there is a fine line between "huevos to the wall" and paralysis by analysis.

Maybe the really successful can suss things out betwixt and between the two, whereas the rest of us fall squarely on one side or the other.

Posted by RandySpangler at April 2, 2010 8:38 AM

I would tender to say that you have looked back in some manner, simply due to the outstanding improvements in both insights and messaging of them over the years.

"Dealing with the damage" on the other hand, may indeed be a personal expression of "your greatest strength is your greatest weakness," and a mild proof that a single one of us cannot be as "perfect" as all of us together, and hence the massively important work of trusted teams finds value here - in allowing the forward-looking of us to drive ahead full steam, while the more socially sensitive help bring emotionally maturity to those who are impacted negatively.

I suggest that "mature awareness" brings each of us to a point of being aware of the consequences of our actions, learning from them and being responsible for them.

However, the ethics of maintaining a balance between a mature responsibility for our actions versus being true to our individual, nature-hard-wired strengths appears to result in a never-perfect result. For myself, being true to who I am "in the moment" means that I will always be strategically looking forward at ways to correct the errors of any action or lack there-of.

Those who never cause collateral damage probably never made enough impact on ANYTHING to matter.

Posted by David Vugteveen at April 2, 2010 9:40 AM

I suspect it's not so much "Never look back" as a pre-disposition to put it down to "What's happened has happened" and/or "You can't make an omelette without breaking an egg" and/or "Well, that's just who I am."

Posted by Mark JF at April 2, 2010 11:34 AM

Reflecting on past actions is useful during planned and purposeful times as a precursor to future planning. It's not as beneficial for the daily routine because it corrupts the decision making process. It's like making a financial decision. You make that decision based on future projections and expected return.

Posted by Bob Williams at April 2, 2010 11:37 AM

Tom, I think it might help if you were to include a brief note about what you mean by "success."

Posted by Andrew Teasdale at April 2, 2010 11:41 AM

The two most worthless words in my vocabulary "If only"

As far as I’m concerned always look forward with just the occasional look in the rear view mirror to reflect about where I’ve been. But definitely not a case of ‘If only I’d done this or that’ – it’s a pointless exercise. Learn from our mistakes to prevent them happening again by all means but no real point whatsoever in repeatedly dragging up the past.

Posted by Trevor Gay at April 2, 2010 4:02 PM

"Learn from our mistakes to prevent them happening again by all means but no real point whatsoever in repeatedly dragging up the past."

No real point except in politics where past mistakes are never forgotten and personal growth and maturity can never erase past misjudgement.

Posted by RandySpangler at April 2, 2010 9:31 PM

Nice note Tom. We can always think about 'If ..then..' situations and brood. However, if you think deeper you will realize that each of those events shaped something for the future. They do say 'whatever happens, happens for good' and my belief is " Don't let go too soon, but don't hang in for too long". Optimism and positivity are the key when looking back, but for taking life ahead, I see it as making a choice and look at the future.

Posted by Sanjeev Sahgal at April 3, 2010 3:40 AM

It seems leaders are oft-times required to operate in a parallel universe---enough self reflection to keep their wits, humility and lessons learned intact---contrasted by the real need to move forward knowing full well they won't get it perfectly right and as a result will likely create collateral damage along the way. The five most frustrating words in leadership lingua "It is, what it is."

Posted by Kerry Stackpole at April 3, 2010 8:18 AM

Absolutely David-

"...hence the massively important work of trusted teams finds value here - in allowing the forward-looking of us to drive ahead full steam, while the more socially sensitive help bring emotionally maturity to those who are impacted negatively."

As one whose strength is in following, I can tell you a leader who storms ahead in the service of the (honourable) vision, no matter the collateral damage, is far more beneficial than a navel-gazing hand-wringing second guesser. The damage caused by inaction is intolerable.

Posted by Lois Gory at April 3, 2010 8:44 AM

By deeply reflecting on my past mistakes I've learned how to repeat them exactly.

Posted by John O'Leary at April 3, 2010 8:55 AM

I discovered early on that I could bulldoze my way to success. My early successes were in large part because I was oblivious to my bulldozing. I didn't care what anyone thought, I just charged forward with what I thought was right. Luckily it worked well, but the collateral damage (mostly in bruised egos) was, in retrospect, a bit higher than I would have wanted.

Now it is a balancing act. Patience, especially when asking people to change, became a key tool. For a while I went too far the other way, being too patient, and watched some wonderfully successful efforts unravel.

My high school psychology class teacher once told me "you think too much!" After half a century of life, I now believe she may have been right. I strive now to act while maintaining rapt attention and hope I have amassed enough wisdom to not make too many avoidable mistakes.

Bruce Benson
http://PMToolsThatWork.com

Posted by Bruce Benson at April 3, 2010 11:12 PM

Agree with Trevor. There is a reason the rear view mirror in the car is so much smaller than the windshield. Good to learn from history but not to dwell in it.

Posted by David Porter at April 4, 2010 8:03 AM

I'm with Andrew: Define "success."

I know many who have been bulldozed by those who consider themselves to be "successful" people.

Posted by Tom Asacker at April 4, 2010 10:06 AM

Tom,
It's one thing to reflect on the past it's quite another to be guided by it. The past is useful to give you simply ONE perspective of action-result relationships but there is a HUGE danger believing that it can be useful in helping us navigate through these times of randomness and upredictability. These times require what I call Planning on the Run: Plan -EXECUTE - learn - adjust - EXECUTE ...
Success and SURVIVAL today come from as you would say "Doin' Stuff and learning from it.
Cheers, Roy

Posted by Roy Osing at April 4, 2010 12:12 PM

I paid close attention to your speaking of "collateral damage". Many times it can be avoided by just a little action and thought. I had a project management course at Baxter in the 80's; the one thing I remembered was "Never nick a King or a Queen". Or "Friends may come and go but enemies accumulate. Choose your enemies carefully".

It has saved me a lot of pain the second time around, for sure.

Posted by Bruce Fryer at April 4, 2010 4:09 PM

To offer a social entrepreneur's thoughts on "never look back", the basic goal for social change agents-- as my grad school professor reminded me -- is to 'master the art of doing good well'.

For that aim, we are constantly challenging groups in society to cooperate in otherwise 'unrelational' spaces. The art of facilitating change amongst groups which have little or nothing to do with one another (and nothing to look back to!) requires the act of breaking new ground for a common interest (i.e. global poverty relief, conflict resolution, etc.) on an ongoing/never-ending basis.

This makes a "never look back" course of action a natural fit with such a social change model. Thanks for the reminder to stay forward!

Jason Hutson
http://www.hope81.org

Posted by Jason Hutson at April 5, 2010 1:32 AM

many people look at relection as the opposite of action. I personally find that strange - I see reflection as an action. Something to be done. I meet this same issue with thinking - To think is a verb.

When I am coaching, part of my job is help people make reflection into a verb - to create the space and often permission to reflect. The key then is to move those ideas or points through planning, goal setting and execution.

The key decision stops being whether to do it or not. It becomes how much time to spend in each area - haw do I make it effective.

Like most key skills reflection is also something that gets easier with practice (takes less time then) so I would urge you to practice it. To me the skill is very closely aligned to self awareness and emotional intelligence.

Reflection as a leader is important. How can you possibly expect to be able to coach and develop other people if you lack this skill in your self?

I personally think there is an alarming lack of reflection in most leaders I come across - it's a real blind spot. It's not just mistakes that get repeated is often behaviours that are done many time a day which cause real and lasting problems.

To me reflection is not just about looking back it's about looking everywhere both inside and outside yourself.

It's time to turn reflection into a clear, positive & effective action that helps to more people and events forward.

Any one who is not reflecting is doing the same old same old - My view - how can possibly come up with anything new without reflection?

Posted by PaulH at April 5, 2010 8:32 AM

viagra express delivery in sydney

There is no back in real life.
You can only move forward.
Just hope you move forward for the better.

Posted by Alan green at April 5, 2010 2:06 PM

As the world is very complex and chaotic I think there is probably less point in looking back than you might at first think. The same event never comes back round in the same way under the same circumstances with the same prospect for an outcome.
There is nothing wrong with looking back but trying to use that as a guide to what will happen in the future won't work. You may feel that what you did didn't work out well, that doesn't mean that it wouldn't work this time or that something else would/will be better.

Posted by Chris Shepherd at April 6, 2010 6:20 AM

Looking at Chris' points I think it's worth breaking this down - there are specific events which probably won't happen the same way again and there is limited value in looking back.

On the other hand if you look at behaviours - these can be repeated many times a day. Reflecting on and doing something about them is often very useful.

As with most things I think it's a matter of balance- taking 2 minutes after a meeting to reflect on how you could have come across better can be very useful - pondering a 1/2 hour meeting for 3 hours is probably not!

Posted by PaulH at April 6, 2010 6:56 AM

I'm with PaulH re: events vs. behaviors. It all comes down to what you can and can't control.

You can't control (say) the way someone will react to a suggestion you make unless you know the person VERY well. (Even then, there's the unpredictable: The way you phrased your suggestion reminded them of their deeply-hated high school math teacher, so from then on they hate you too.)

But you can control what you say and do, and if, as PaulH suggests, you see a pattern where one of your behaviors usually gets a result you don't want, maybe it's time for you to do something about changing it.

Posted by Paula at April 15, 2010 5:37 PM

Tony Bennett asks, "How do you know where you're going if you don't know where you've been?" That will be my lede for my ebook, "When I Was a Boy..." I do think we've lost the ability to reflect in American business. I agree, Tom, that too much analysis leads to paralysis. I think the problem remains that too many people NEVER reflect at all...

Posted by Howard Alford at April 21, 2010 1:16 AM