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34
SOAR TO SUCCESS
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OCT. 2015
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BusinessAccelerationStrategies
By: Jack Klemeyer
There is an interesting
dichotomy in business
that makes you
both successful and
keeps you from being
successful and that
is the act of making
assumptions.
We all modify our
world in order for it to
make sense by doing
three basic things, we
generalize, we delete and
we distort things so we can
comprehend, explain and
survive. From that comes
the phrase made famous by
the late Stephen R. Covey,
“The map is not the territory.”
This phrase was not a Covey
original. It was originally coined
in the 1930s by Polish-American
scientist and philosopher, Alfred
Korzybski.
In a positive sense, we learn
how a key goes in a lock one
time and then we know how to
do that simple task evermore.
Those generalizations work
for us in all types of ways: In
our sales process, the way
we meet people, the way we
navigate socially at chamber
meetings or other business
functions.
Another useful way to use
assumptions is to, as my friend
and author Shelle Rose Charvet
says, “
guess and test.
” That is
the appropriate way (strategy)
to employ the assumption or
the generalization. The test
component is critical. If you
assume something make sure
in some way besides the guess
that you are correct. Otherwise,
the strategy changes from a
positive to a negative.
Korzybski came up with the
catchy phrase noted above
when he noticed that some
people confuse their reality
with reality itself. That is the
dangerous strategy of using
assumptions or generalizations
in business (in life for that
matter) when we assume
something and then react to
it as if it where real without
testing it. I have seen many
talented people use this most
ineffective strategy to their
demise.
The Most
Dangerous
Thing to Do in
Business