Sometime between the third cup of tea and the first glass of wine on a weekend in a Yorkshire cottage, my friends and I opened up the quaint dresser to discover a pile of jigsaw puzzles.
Brilliant, I thought: the perfect mindless way to wind down after an action-packed first few weeks of the On Purpose programme. I assigned myself a corner of the puzzle, and merrily embarked on recreating a picture of a delightful National Trust property with peace in my heart and very little in my head.
5 minutes later my mind was whirring: how might an issue tree for cracking this jigsaw look? Would a good MECE approach be edge-pieces versus middle-pieces? Topiary hedge versus be-swanned lake? Mindless schmindless: this jigsaw was just begging for some structured problem-solving.
Calm yourself: it's just a jigsaw, I muttered. Everyone else is getting along fine. But the inner On Purpose training voice crept in. Hmmmm but are we all applying ourselves to the best of our MBTI profiles? Would my INFP mate be more comfortable working in a different way? Perhaps I needed to abandon my iNtuitive preference for a good Sensing approach?
I ploughed on. A little topiary completion here; a little swan completion there, as the fancy took me. This was what holidays were for. But hang on a moment: my mate was making real progress with her element of the picture, whereas I'd barely made an impact on mine. Perhaps I wasn't jigsawing productively enough? Maybe the Getting Things Done technique would suggest I search for several pieces at once? What did I really think the next action was and which section could I ignore for later? WHAT WOULD TOM RIPPIN DO?
Be warned: you can take the girl out of On Purpose training but you can't take On Purpose training out of the girl.
Love this blog. So (worryingly) true!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you were too focussed on the small details and ignoring the big picture. i.e. not enough purpoising.
ReplyDeleteI think you might be right Andy. I'm calling you next time I'm faced with a jigsaw dilemma.
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