The Manifesto
The Fact
Dramatic improvement is eminently feasible in every single situation.
It doesn’t matter what the domain is or how much time, energy, expertise or influence we have: dramatic improvement is totally feasible.
The Key
Dramatic improvement results from leverage. And there is always leverage, if the situation is challenging. (More about this later.) In fact, the more challenging the situation, the greater the leverage.
The key to dramatic improvement, is finding and using – instead of ignoring or fighting – the very leverage that makes challenging situations challenging.
They’re only challenging because we’re pushing the wrong end of the lever. Push the right end and we get a whole different result.
The Problem
We think dramatic improvement is impossible, because we can’t “see” the leverage opportunities – not because they aren’t there: hidden in plain hindsight.
This is the fundamental human condition problem (which we’ll discuss in depth in a post or two ): We’re blind to – and can’t take advantage of – what we don’t know we don’t know, or have chosen to ignore.
The Solution
The way to overcome our inherent blindness to what we don’t know we don’t know is to use universal leverage patterns as cognitive scaffolding (templates) to help us “see” the hidden leverage opportunities for our specific situation.
Knowing what sorts of things we’re looking for – the pattern they follow – makes all the difference!
Click here for the Drim Manifesto Video.
Universal Leverage-Point Pattern Examples
- The bottleneck
Every situation has a single bottleneck, at any point in time. Relieve it and end-to-end flow improves instantaneously. Relieving non-bottlenecks gives us nothing – and nearly always makes things worse. - The weakest link in the chain
A chain is only as strong as the weakest link. Strengthen the weakest link and you’ve strengthened the entire chain. Strengthening other links won’t make the entire chain any stronger – and could actually weaken it. - The vicious cycle
Flip the vicious cycle into a virtuous one and all the energy and momentum that was resisting change will accelerate it. Fighting the vicious cycle head-on is a surefire way to expend energy needlessly – and nearly always compounds the problem. - The missing prerequisite
If an essential ingredient is missing, we won’t – can’t – get the outcome we’re seeking. Adding other, non-critical, ingredients to make up the shortfall won’t help – and will almost certainly make the outcome harder to achieve, when we finally work out what the missing ingredient is.
Get immediate benefit
Get your head around the concept: dramatic improvement is eminently feasible in every challenging situation. Every. Single. One.
Look for leverage points in your challenging situation, using the universal leverage-point examples above as filters on your situation. Focus on the obvious opportunities first: the others will emerge in due course.
Don’t be surprised to find yourself thinking that there are no leverage points in your situation. We have to fight our brains’ natural, conditioned aversion to looking for something that it “knows” isn’t there.
The next few posts will explore the key universal leverage-points in depth – and help you apply them to your (and any) situation.
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