PMA, a buzz phrase of the last 100 years
I think language is important as it defines the world we live in, the minute you try to change the meaning of the words you change the situation, saying “I am all for freedom of speech, but we shouldn’t offend anyone” is simply changing the definition of “freedom of speech” to meaning you don’t have any freedom at all because somebody somewhere is very likely to be offended by what you say, me for a start if you are not expressing your feelings because you are worried about offending someone.
I get the meaning of a word changes overtime nice used to mean silly or foolish, but that change happened over hundreds of years not because someone was not educated enough to understand what the word meant in the first place or simply because they didn’t like what it meant.
And there are people who will point to social media saying that words change faster because of the speed of communication now, yet if you are going to hold up the most vitriolic insane, hateful place in the world as a paragon of communication we are all in trouble. You know I am right; people do not say the kind of things they say on social media to someone in a pub because they would get knocked out.
At the same time social media can be a power for good LinkedIn for example seems to be mostly immune from the insane excesses that permeate through the rest of the internet, although it does creep in from time to time and I think it genuinely helps most people in business get ahead in their field if they take the time to use it properly.
And that brings me back to language, it is incredibly powerful if you use it correctly, not just for communication with others but critically for communication with yourself. Positive Mental Attitude is important but positive does not mean you ignore the bad stuff, it does not mean you pretend it is not or does not happen, and it definitely does not mean that if you just stay positive everything will work itself out, as positive attitude without positive action generally leaves you positively broke.
This brings me to a concept that the Positive Mental Attitude brigade has royally screwed over the last 100 years the difference between a Problem and a challenge, The PMA brigade what you to believe there are not such things as problems only challenges to be met, and yet the definition of a problem is
“A matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome.”
Read that again “a situation that needs to be overcome” how is that negative in fact I would argue that is a Positive Mental Attitude.
What about a challenge
“To participate in a competitive situation or “fight to decide who is superior in terms of ability or strength” 0r “a call to prove or justify something or dispute the truth or validity of” or “invite (someone) to engage in a contest”.
Read that again as well because how the hell can you overcome anything that way?
In order to rise to the challenge, you must first know what it is you are overcoming right?
Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case, most business leaders I meet are running around facing their challenges head on working hard and getting nowhere fast.
If people spent a little more time understanding the actual problem they are facing, and then understanding the root cause of that problem, they would be much better equipped to meet the challenge and overcome the problem.
This is why I love problems; it gives focus and direction to what needs to be overcome, it means each time you identify an actual problem instead of accepting the challenge of the symptoms you are facing you will overcome it and move forward.
So the moral, yes be positive about identifying the underlying problems facing you and your organisation, be brave, look under the bed to find the monster that is lurking there and then challenge it to a duel, once you defeat it there will always be another problem to find, and that is good as it is in the overcoming of them that we grow.
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