If there was ever a year for 'Big Rocks'...

It almost seems redundant to send this out this year, though after a 15 year-or-so tradition, I feel compelled to. I say redundant because I feel that many of us have been shocked into considering our 'Big Rocks' over and over again in 2020. I am certainly not going to turn this into yet another review of the year - we all know what happened. However, I will say that this year it struck me harder than ever that the pure luck of my birth place, my genes, my color, and my gender made me a whole lot more fortunate than the majority of the world's population, and for that I am hugely grateful.

And so follows my traditional parable for this time of year, and as always, the credit goes to Dr. Steven Covey for this perennial favorite. I hope 2021 is memorable for you for all the right reasons.

'Big Rocks', paraphrased from Dr. Stephen R. Covey's 'First Things First':

One day an expert was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration which started as follows: 

The lecturer said, "Okay, it's time for a quiz."

Reaching under the table, he pulled out a wide-mouthed gallon jar and set it on the table next to a platter covered with fist-sized rocks. "How many of these rocks do you think we can get in the jar?" he asked the audience.

After the students made their guesses, the seminar leader said, "Okay, let's find out." He put one rock in the jar, then another, then another, until no more rocks would fit. Then he asked, "Is the jar full?" Everybody could see that not one more of the rocks would fit, so they said, "Yes."

"Not so fast," he cautioned. From under the table he lifted out a bucket of gravel, dumped it in the jar, and shook it. The gravel slid into all the little spaces left by the big rocks. Grinning, the seminar leader asked once more, "Is the jar full?"

A little wiser by now, the students responded, "Probably not."

"Good," the teacher said. Then he reached under the table to bring up a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar. While the students watched, the sand filled in the little spaces left by the rocks and gravel. Once more he looked at the class and said, "Now, is the jar full?" "No," everyone shouted back.

"Good!" said the seminar leader, who then grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it into the jar. He got something like a quart of water into that jar before he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the jar is now full. Can anybody tell me the lesson you can learn from this? What's my point?"

An eager participant spoke up: "Well, there are gaps in your schedule. And if you really work at it, you can always fit more into your life."

"No," the teacher said. "That's not the point. The point is this: If I hadn't put those big rocks in first, I would never have gotten them in."

*****

Again, wishing everyone as wonderful a year as possible in 2021.

Best regards

Simon

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Simon Mullins facilitates ESIX: Executive Search Information Exchange (www.ESIX.org), a corporate peer networking group with more than 90 member organizations from multiple industries and geographies, whose representatives meet regularly to build and discuss best practices around executive and leadership recruiting. This article is based on Simon's own experiences and ESIX research, and does not necessarily represent the views of the ESIX membership.

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