There are many places in this world where you can really connect with nature–through hiking. Hiking, outside of a city or country where the road’s end and the sidewalks disappear, requires the walker to pick their own route. One of the easiest to find but not always easy to navigate are dry river, creek or streambeds.
Recently, while hiking a dry creek bed in the Rocky Mountains of the United States, I took special notice of how everyone in our party made their way along the creek. The creek was quite wide, maybe 30 feet at the widest points. This meant that several people in our party could walk side by side if they chose. With all that space available, though, it was interesting how different the paths were that people took.
Some walked side by side but in a particular, and ever changing, part of the creek bed. Others followed the hike leaders, betting that those leaders had chosen the best, or at least one of the best routes available.
Still others seemed to choose based, not on the space, but on the obstacles they would encounter. Some zig zagged all over the creek bed to avoid any large rocks or fallen trees that they might have to scramble over. At the other end of the spectrum, some of the group, especially those that were younger and more fit, intentionally scrambled over boulders, tree trunks, and anything that seemed to make the path forward challenging.
As I watched, I thought of how similar moving through a creek bed and moving forward in life are. We’re all walking through a creek bed called “life” but we’re all picking the best path forward for us. Some want an easier path and some more challenge. Some are best positioned for a little easier approach, while others will go the easy or challenging way as long as others will lead the way.
The old world of talk at, work for, follow me, do what I want was a world where there was “a” path that someone had picked and the rest of us, if we were to be successful, would simply line up and follow. There are lots of problems with this approach, but they fall into at least two basic categories:
Who said your path is the only way forward?
A go slow and minimize risk pathfinder or leader is going to limit themselves to a narrow part of the entire “path” and, perhaps, lose out on better ways of getting to their aim. A “stretch goal” and “competitive” leader might only pick the path that requires clambering over enormous boulders, ducking large fallen trees and, in doing so, lose valuable team members who aren’t interested in or up for that challenge.
It’s a wide path forward.
Why, instead of lining everyone up on one route in some form of “follow the leader” not let their team explore, individually or collectively, the entire creek bed and test different ways forward? Some attempts will fail–the path ends up being impassable and there will need to be some doubling back and starting over. But what if the challenging path doesn’t end up being impassable and is a better route forward?
The creek bed, as rugged, uncharted and unpredictable as it is, represents much of life’s leadership experience. Disruptive, leading edge organizations aren’t following the roads and sidewalks others have laid in their market. The disruptors are “off grid” but can still benefit from natural guidance, like a dried creek bed. Of course you could just head off into the bush and not worry about following anything but, if you’ve ever tried to make your way through dense brush with a heavy tree canopy blocking your ability to find the sun and navigate from there you’ll always resort to the dried creek bed, the animal trail or anything else, no matter how challenging that gives your teams options with some direction on how to move forward.
This is the 21st century. Business diversity comes in many forms, but one of its most powerful is the diversity of path selection. Let’s not narrow the options unnecessarily. Let’s unleash the team across the creek bed and see what happens.
