Simplify: Test
Mark Bilton
Independent Chair | Strategist | Leaders' Advocate | Advisory Board Creator | International YPO Facilitator | YPO Emeritus Ambassador.
We're talking here about what it takes to equip your company for growth. Specifically, in this session,?how to simplify. Today we're talking about the first factor in simplification; the importance of testing, test test test.
F. Scott Fitzgerald has an example of a test. He said,?“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”?Personally, I think paradox and being comfortable with it, is ‘part and parcel’ of being a good leader. But it is a good example of a test. Test and see as they say.
The frustration here is that if we don't test things, they just multiply. Processes and systems become more complex and organisational culture becomes more bureaucratic. It literally gets harder to do things almost by natural order. All things trend toward disorder. More specifically, the second law of thermodynamics states that?“as one goes forward in time, the net entropy (degree of disorder) of any isolated or closed system will always increase (or at least stay the same).”?... Energy disperses, and systems dissolve into chaos. It’s so true for our organisations as well.