In any given situation there are only three decisions that can be made: productive, unproductive or counterproductive. These decisions will lead to positive, ambiguous or negative results, depending on the perspective of the person observing the results.
A leader is expected to make productive decisions that lead to positive results. In such a situation, perspective is a significant part of the equation.
Consider the following example:
Suddenly, while out walking, you become thirsty. You decide to go to a store that sells milk and orange juice. In order to fulfill your need you have three options: you can buy milk, you can buy orange juice or you can buy both. Either three of these alternatives could be considered productive decisions with positive results since each leads to the result that your need is fulfilled.
You can also choose to not buy anything at all. This would not fulfill your need and could be considered unproductive and ambiguous but it is a viable choice. The reason I say ambiguous is because the decision can not be considered unproductive out of hand. It may be that you don’t like either milk or orange juice and therefore buying them would not fulfill your need anyway. In fact, you may even be allergic to them, in which case buying either milk or orange juice would be considered downright dangerous, i.e. counterproductive.
But what if instead of milk or orange juice you bought salty crackers? In this case the crackers would actually increase your thirst instead of slaking it! This could be considered a counterproductive decision with negative results, i.e crazy.
But is this necessarily so?
It could be that you so dislike milk that the only way you could force yourself to drink it, were if you were really thirsty. In that case, the salty crackers could be considered an enabler. The salty crackers would enable you to overcome your aversion to milk and fulfill your need of slaking your thirst. In this case, a seemingly counterproductive decision, would actually produce positive results all depending on the perspective of the observer.
This example could be considered “out-of-the-box” thinking. The question then becomes, whose box?
An Impossible Choice?
1. Milk
2. Orange Juice
3. Milk & Orange Juice
4. Nothing
5. Salty Crackers
