Coconut or Apple?

In our culture’s tendency of linear logic, we make judgements and estimations continuously.? This can be a good forward mapping driver in business, BUT it has limitations:

There is a tendency to use existing information at hand such as environment, circumstances, conditions, history.? This type of speculation is used to visualize possibilities, bottlenecks and projections.

?????????????? We talk in terms of:

????????????????????????????? Probable outcomes

????????????????????????????? ROI’s

????????????????????????????? Margin of success

????????????????????????????? Opportunities for failure

?????????????? Similar questions and judgements could be applied to personnel:

????????????????????????????? What are their capabilities/limitations?

Are they a proven quantity?

They are a product of their environment.

????????????????????????????? The cards are stacked against them.

????????????????????????????? The apple never falls far from the tree.

These judgements can be both cliché and stale and confine outcomes and potential by what is likely dated information, opinions, partial knowledge and previous experience.

The potential of innovation and growth is diminished when we overlay limiting factors on challenges, whether they be with process, systems, or people.

We should ask, how far can they go? ?or What is possible under the right conditions?

I love the example of the coconut palm.? It has propagated itself profusely around the world.?

Unlike the apple that may not fall far from the tree, the coconut (and this has been studied) drops its fruit and with bounce and roll, it can come to rest up to 30 meters from the base of the tree.?

BUT that is only the beginning.? Coconuts float and can survive in water, even sea water for 4 months.? During that time with wind and ocean currents, it’s possible for a viable coconut to travel up to 4800 kms.? This is called Hydrochory.? Nobody is sure exactly where coconuts originated because they are everywhere in the tropical world, however a leading theory places the origin in Sri Lanka.

I think it’s great that the origin isn’t known for sure.? It highlights the point that adaptation overcomes environment.?

"Innovation is seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody else thought." -Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorghi

BE A COCONUT, NOT AN APPLE