Most business owners have fixed a problem, only to watch a new one appear somewhere else. This expedition went looking for why that keeps happening, starting with an ordinary egg and the shortcuts our own brains take.
The props
I started by picking up an egg. An egg is a chicken's solution to the problem of making another egg. It solves another problem too, because it is very nutritious. But it creates a new one: drop it and you have a mess. Boil it and you solve that, but now it spoils sooner. Every fix changed the egg, and every change brought a new problem.
Then I showed a few lines and shapes on the screen, followed by the words DIE KAT SIT OP DIE MAT. In about a second and a half, everyone turned those random symbols into a sentence with meaning. Reading is one of the brain's best solutions.
So I put it to the test with the classic Stroop test. First, colour words appeared in their own colour, and calling out the colour was easy. Then each word appeared in a different colour, and the room slowed down and stumbled. The same shortcut that makes reading effortless had become the problem.
I also wore my Afrikaans t-shirt, Die Ontwerp van 'n Eier, showing the nine layers of a chicken egg.
The pattern
- Problem
- Solution
- Change
- New problem
Explored through an egg, the way we read, and the decisions business owners make every day.
A moment from the room
Afterwards, one attendee told me about a building where the owners saved money by installing a cheaper generator. Years later, its parts were no longer available, and the generator had been encased in a concrete structure, so replacing it became a far bigger and costlier job. A cheaper fix on day one had quietly become the next problem.
The question I left the room with
Which solution in your life or business is perhaps only treating the symptom?
Bring this expedition to your teamA talk, workshop or lunch and learn, with the props, in English or Afrikaans.
Book Werner