{"id":236,"date":"2006-09-08T10:43:40","date_gmt":"2006-09-08T10:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php\/2006\/09\/08\/easy_answers\/"},"modified":"2006-09-08T10:43:40","modified_gmt":"2006-09-08T10:43:40","slug":"easy_answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/?p=236","title":{"rendered":"Easy Answers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the most fundamental quest in human history has been to find ‘the
\npath to a fulfilled life.’ Throughout time, men and women  have
\nsought to address this question at various levels of depth. For some it has
\nbeen a shallow ‘tell me everything I need to know in five minutes’ while
\nfor others it has truly been a life’s work. For many this search has
\nbeen expressed through a religious journey, some through exploration of the
\nnatural universe, some through personal conquest, and increasingly today many
\nfind expression in the world of business. (Indeed we have heard it said that
\nbusiness has replaced religion as the source for meaning in people’s
\nlives.) People in this category may attempt to find fulfilment through building
\nhuge organisations, by amassing personal wealth or perhaps creating something
\nof enduring worth.<\/p>\n

\nHand in hand with the individual quest, have been those who offer to provide
\neither “the answer” or guidance along the path. In the field of
\nreligion we have priests, rabbis, mullahs and teachers. We also have heretics.
\nIn personal health we have doctors and medical practitioners of all varieties.
\nWe also have quacks and snake oil salesmen. In business we have consultants
\non the one hand and charlatans on the other (See Thomas
\nSzasz<\/a>). Somewhere in that mix, and across all fields of endeavour we have ‘gurus’.<\/p>\n

\nA few years ago Spiral Path worked for a one of the Big Five<\/a> professional services
\nfirms in Melbourne. It was an eye opening experience. we could see in the
\neyes and hear in the words of our clients two very different perceptions
\nof us. One the one hand there was a deep distrust. Our fees were higher than
\nanyone else in town and they knew, or suspected, that we were looking for
\nways to broaden the engagement (and hence charge more fees) in almost every
\nconversation. In short, they felt we were out to ‘screw them’. <\/p>\n

\nOn the other hand, they engaged us because our fees were so high. Our fees
\nmust be the highest because we must be the best. When they came to a presentation
\nin our offices, they met us at the hallowed thirteenth floor. There was a hush
\nwhen the lift opened. We did everything we could to make them feel it was their
\nprivilege to be invited to come here. We provided them with a magnificent view
\nof Melbourne (a metaphor for our omniscience), the meeting was attended by
\nwaiters who would serve tea, coffee and biscuits individually and when they
\nwent to the bathroom they were regaled with marble walls stone floors and gold
\nfittings.<\/p>\n

\nThroughout all this, Spiral Path felt they entertained (and we encouraged)
\none abiding fantasy about us. Yes they could come to Level 13. But there
\nwere parts of the building only staff were allowed. Surely there was, somewhere
\nhigher in the building that they could only dream of where only the most
\ndevout staff could go. A place where there was a huge book laid out on an
\nalter. In the book were all the possible scenarios that could face a business.
\nMore importantly, next to each scenario was “the answer” — what
\nthe business needed to do to solve the problems it faced or to obliterate
\nits competition. In their heart of hearts, Spiral Path believes this is what
\nthey hoped they were paying for.<\/p>\n

Spiral Path keeps this experience in mind whenever a new book, article or theory
\ncomes across our desk. When we evaluate any leadership theory, the most fundamental
\nquestion we need to address is to what extent it provides practical and useful
\ndirection in the art of leading and to what it extent it feeds our fantasy that
\nit is a shortcut that will enable us to lead and be successful without doing
\nthe hard work of being a leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the most fundamental quest in human history has been to find ‘the path to a fulfilled life.’ Throughout time, men and women  have sought to address this question at various levels of depth. For some it has been a shallow ‘tell me everything I need to know in five minutes’ while for others it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}