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Some people, a few, will know where to look. The rest is clueless.
So why would they be clueless?
Because they can’t connect the dots.
What is connecting the dots?
It is seeing the relationship between seemingly unrelated things, seemingly unrelated data.
Seeing what is cause, what is effect…
Well, a poorly constructed system, by necessity, causes a poorly functioning organization, whether it is a life, a relationship, or a business.
And then come the disappointments, the complaints, the arguments, the confusion, and the feeling that no matter what you do, it won’t matter.
People who can’t connect the dots will NEVER look at the system. Never look at the seed level, the foundation, the ground rules, the setup.
On Monday I had the good fortune to coach three people. All three can’t connect the dots. All their issues came from the unseen, the unexamined, clumsily put together ‘system’.
These cases are incredibly educational… I am not sure I am allowed to share much, because like a doctor, I am really not allowed to divulge much about people’s businesses…
So I’ll attempt to tiptoe around the personal details.
Here it goes:
Case #1:
There is a professional contract between my client and her client. The client’s client is a restaurant. It is to create a document that will allow the restaurant to expand… and the bank to give a sizeable loan.
The contract is set up poorly. (system!). The issue is that my clients needs to set up a marketing plan that would have a chance to generate more disposable income than the loan.
Because the restaurant has no idea what marketing is, the contract should be, correctly, for a marketing team, the whole plan and its execution… About the same monetary compensation as the desired loan itself… and not a document to dupe the bank.
Which, to me indicates that unless my client becomes a marketing agency, this assignment is committing fraud… and of course she doesn’t want to do it.
Marketing agency? Yes. Can she do it? Yes. Is it difficult? Not really. Takes some learning, but not difficult.
The system, the foundation, is flawed… And my client can’t win unless she attends to the foundation.
Case #2:
My client is monitoring her employee’s performance, and prepares the billing for the services rendered. To her surprise, her employee discounts the service, and even lies that the buyer is an established client.
Turns out that the employee contract my client had her employee sign allows for that.
So the contract gives free reign for the employee to
1. set herself up as the good guy and
2. Shortchange her employer.
The problem is only partially with the employee.
The contract assumes that people are good and their intentions are honorable. But reality doesn’t confirm that. In our reality, on our evolutionary stage, humanity is dominated by the desire to receive for the self alone… meaning: unless someone is shortchanged, today’s humans are not happy. Ugh.
The contract needs to be re-written where all employees need to present a unified front, and unless they do that, they are at fault. If the employee wants to give part of her share to a customer, as a gift, they can do that. They can do whatever they want with what belongs to them… not what belongs to the company.
I bet no employee would be discounting and covering the difference from their paycheck after the updated contract.
Case #3: This is not a business case… this is a holiday case.
My client needs to visit three families during this week. Her track record is that when she spends any time with any of her family, she loses all her vibrational and intellectual gain she worked really hard, before the visit.
So what is the ‘system’? what is the foundation, the core issue in this situation?
It is the how. The who.
If she will be, all week, like her usual glib, eager to please, eager to sound smart, nice, blah blah blah, her vibration will be under the frog’s ass by next week. Not the slightest doubt about that.
She decided to be that way when she was a toddler… time to be different…
So we invented a new attitude for her: being interested. Interested people don’t talk a lot. Don’t put themselves ahead of others. They are generous. Allow others to be smart, to shine.
If she manages to be that way, she will be able to maintain her vibration…
Unfortunately she doesn’t have the intention turned on… she has never learned it.
And the same thing is true for all three of them.
The issues are: looking wide enough, outside your personal hurt or personal concern.
- When you look, you may be able to see…
- And then when you see, you need to accurately, astutely recognize what you are seeing.
- And then… you need to connect the dots… i.e. recognize what is cause and what is effect.
Of course, given the
1. narrow cone of vision of people
2. given how they can only see their own concern, not what is there
3. given that they never even look to see
4. and given that the ‘normal’ astuteness level is 1%, and
5. given that no one can tell the difference between cause and effect,
people make poor decisions.
Your life is the result of your decisions. We make on average 20 decisions a day… The result of all your decisions is your life.
You don’t like it? You may want to improve your chances by improving your numbers in this process.
All will go better and faster if you can use and do use your intention.
Want to connect the dots? See cause and effect?
