Crossing the Crocodile Pit: It doesn’t have to be so hard

Many things we do in organizations seem hard. Personally, I don’t think it has to be that way. I realize I may be delusional but let me explain. I believe that one reason things seem hard is our perspective on the problem.

If you see your problem as crossing the crocodile pit, it is hard. How in the world are we going to get to the other side without being eaten alive? We are afraid. Any step has the potential of turning us into a tasty meal. So, we analyze, we plan, we worry, we must make sure not to make a wrong move.

My first question is, “Is there really a crocodile pit between us and our goal?” We have tried a similar crossing in the past and we got eaten. There are crocodiles; we have experienced them — once. It hurt and we don’t want to experience that again; so, we analyze, we plan, we worry, we must make sure not to make another wrong move. Tip #1: Make sure there really is a crocodile pit.

My second question is, “OK, there is a crocodile pit, why do we have to go through it?” We are creatures of habit; we know the “best practice” for getting to the other side is to go through the crocodile pit; that is the way everybody does it, that is how the best companies and teams do it. Now we can copy others who successfully crossed. We know that company X got through the crocodile pit. How did they do it? We can do that too. So, we study and imitate, and then we analyze, we plan, we worry, we must make sure not to make a wrong move.

Nice try but, for some reason, that almost got us eaten alive. We did everything just like the other company; but we must be different than company X, their solution just didn’t work for us. Fortunately, we were able to get safely back to shore before we got eaten. So, here we are back where we started, a little worse for wear, a little more fearful, but alive. Tip #2: Don’t be a copycat. It is fine to learn from others but the solution has to ultimately come from within; your crocodile pit is unique.

My third question is, “Are we imagining more crocodiles than there are?” We got burned, there were a lot of crocodiles. We don’t want to experience that again. We have to gear up to cross that crocodile pit again. Today it looks really calm but we know there are a lot of angry crocodiles hiding there. We have experienced it before, there is no reason to think they have gone to another pond. So, we act as though the water is not clear. We analyze, we plan, we worry, we must make sure not to make a wrong move. We tentatively head into the pit and find the sailing is easy. Those crocodiles are gone, except for a little baby. Tip #3: Test the water. What was true in the past may not be true now.

My fourth question is, “Have we created an angry baby crocodile?” We are very happy that the crocodile pit is not nearly as fierce as it once was. We push that baby croc aside and easily get to the other side. Unfortunately, that baby croc is not happy about being run over. It is angry. When it grows up, it is going to get even. Tip #4: Don’t create angry crocodiles. Even though crossing the pit may not be all that difficult, if you run over crocodiles, they will eventually come back to bite you.

Finally, “What if we saw the problem differently?” Our problem has been “how to cross the crocodile pit safely.” This is not an easy problem to solve as we have seen; there are a lot of pitfalls. The common wisdom and best practice is all about safely navigating the crocodile pit, so that is what we focus on. But is this really the problem? No, it is a solution to a bigger problem; we need to get to the other side. There is a solution to the crocodile pit that makes everything much easier and still lets us reach our goal of getting to the other side. What if we built a drawbridge to go over the crocodile pit and didn’t try to get through it at all? Not only would we be able to navigate to the other side easily but it is a permanent solution. Every time we need to cross, we lower the bridge. No analysis, no planning, no worry, no fear of making a wrong move and getting eaten alive. The difficult just got easier. Of course we need to make sure we don’t fall off the drawbridge, but this is a much easier, less stressful, and less time consuming problem. Tip #5: Be mindful of how you “see” the problem.

I haven’t provided specific examples in this article but will in the future. I invite you to add your examples. How have you avoided the five traps? Do you have an example of falling into them? What got you out?

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