Monday, January 21, 2013

Balanced self-awareness is essential to success

Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield wrote in the New York Times about the importance of self-awareness in achieving success ("Secret Ingredient for Success"). Sweeney and Gosfield are the authors of "The Art of Doing: How Superachievers Do What They Do and How They Do It So Well." In the article, they tell the story of renowned chef David Chang, who struggled after starting Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York City:

Mr. Chang could have blamed someone else for his troubles, or worked harder (though available evidence suggests that might not have been possible) or he could have made minor tweaks to the menu. Instead he looked inward and subjected himself to brutal self-assessment.

Was the humble noodle bar of his dreams economically viable? Sure, a traditional noodle dish had its charm but wouldn't work as the mainstay of a restaurant if he hoped to pay his bills.

Mr. Chang changed course. Rather than worry about what a noodle bar should serve, he and his cooks stalked the produce at the greenmarket for inspiration. Then they went back to the kitchen and cooked as if it was their last meal, crowding the menu with wild combinations of dishes they'd want to eat - tripe and sweetbreads, headcheese and flavor-packed culinary mashups like a Korean-style burrito. What happened next Mr. Chang still considers "kind of ridiculous" - the crowds came, rave reviews piled up, awards followed and unimaginable opportunities presented themselves.

During the 1970s, Chris Argyris, a business theorist at Harvard Business School (and now, at 89, a professor emeritus) began to research what happens to organizations and people, like Mr. Chang, when they find obstacles in their paths.

Professor Argyris called the most common response single loop learning - an insular mental process in which we consider possible external or technical reasons for obstacles.

Less common but vastly more effective is the cognitive approach that Professor Argyris called double-loop learning. In this mode we - like Mr. Chang - question every aspect of our approach, including our methodology, biases and deeply held assumptions. This more psychologically nuanced self-examination requ
ires that we honestly challenge our beliefs and summon the courage to act on that information, which may lead to fresh ways of thinking about our lives and our goals.

We've written about this prescription over and over again on this site. Self-awareness is a key to success - and it involves scrutinizing our strengths, weaknesses, and deepest assumptions about the world. It requires viewing ourselves at a slight remove, so we can diagnose the things we must do to be successful.

It involves "facing actual circumstances," instead of what we wish would happen, as Justin Menkes described in "Better Under Pressure: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Themselves and Others."

It involves a balanced look at our successes and failures - unlike Lafley & Martin.

It may even benefit from Paul Schoemaker's "deliberate mistake" - an action taken counter to your own sense of what will work.

You cannot control external factors. As the Buddhists say, you can only control what you do and how you react to things that happen. By cultivating self-awareness (including by tracking and evaluating the things that don't go to plan)

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