Message of the Day - Confronting the Brutal Facts

Good Morning,

 

Several weeks ago I recommended a book, ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins (http://www.jimcollins.com/) to a friend of mine who is struggling with some tough issues with an organization he is running. Over Derby weekend, when I ‘got out’ and headed to Pigeon Forge, I was able to get a copy of the book on CD for my friend. And with such a good price, I bought myself one too. Since then I have been listening daily to this wonderful book (I am on disk 6 of eight). If you have read the book, get the CDs anyway, Jim has added new information throughout the work.

 

One part of the book that keeps hitting me in the face is ‘Confront the Brutal Facts’. In the book, Jim talks about how the good to great companies were able to look at what was going on and confronted the bad news as effectively as the good news. As Good To Great is not only for business people but for anyone, we can use this factor to help improve our own lives. Brad Barton, in his book ‘Beyond Illusions’ (http://www.morebetterbooks.com/product.php?productid=69&cat=0&page=1)  talks about doing the very same thing, get past the illusion and see what is really going on.

 

In day to day life we can easily find ways to ignore or make excuses for brutal facts, anything to no confront them and acknowledge them. When we do this, we only hurt ourselves and put off the inevitable. That is the brutal facts do not go away simply because we do not see them anymore. Trust me, they are still there….waiting….they are patient….usually more patient than we are…

 

Back in the late 1980’s I was tasked with cleaning up a storage room. The room was about 4,000 square feet and had over 400 boxes and piles of books and printed matter. I looked at the heaping piles and just sighed, overwhelmed by the tasking and thinking if I really felt healthy enough to be at work that day. Then something interesting happened. Someone there had me look at the piles, not just glancing, but to see deeply into each pile and the room as a whole. I confronted the piles of boxes and books. The more I looked, the more the feeling of overwhelm blew off. After a few minutes instead of thinking ‘OMG!’ I started thinking of a plan of attack to start and finish the reorganization and inventory of the room and all of the boxes and books.

 

In the end, it worked out well, I tackled the job, but during the many hours of work I had to take time and re-confront the brutal reality of the job. Just seeing it once and overcoming it did not mean I was done.

 

Confronting the brutal facts about anything is not just a one time action, it must be done and it must be done more than once.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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