What's Your GiG?

This second tip is designed for those who wish to get sh*t done and know the bureaucracy that usually impedes progress. 

There are a thousand books on the different approaches to getting stuff done in corporate America, government, heck, even relationships.  They call for us to have *fierce* conversations, and *get naked with our feelings* and *go toe to toe* and *climb into your lifeboat* and last,*'sit knee to knee.* 

What is going on?  Do we really believe this? Why do we need to have body parts touching in order to be persuasive?  Is this the dog park equivalent of sniffing butts?  sniff, sniff, sniff....wag tail...translation: good to go...another new friend....I'll send you some pee-mail. Are you on Dogbook?

When we want and need to make some progress and get sh*t done, up here in the world of the two-leggeds, endless consensus building kills initiative.

Here's where I'm going:  Read Orbiting the Giant Hairball, about Gordon MacKenzie's twenty year stint in the creative department at Hallmark.  Right there in the title, he sets up the inherent conflict.  Huge corporation = Hallmark.  Artistic, independent thought = Creative department.  Result:  orbiting the giant hairball.

Gordon details in his very own unique style how he learned to co-habitate in this large corporation.  There is a hilarious chapter called, "Milk Cans Are Not Allowed" describing the debate, politics, and people antics behind a corporate RULE (No milk cans in the building) and an artistic REQUEST (using milk cans as wastebaskets). This is a true story, I kid you not. Outcome:  borrow antique milk cans from Hallmarks art museum, placing them "on display" and use as wastebaskets.

My negotiations teacher from Columbia would have called the outcome, 'an elegant solution.' This is what I mean when I say 'fly under the radar.' 

Yes, one approach could have been to launched a blog entitled "Milk Cans Rule", a website called "Hallmark's Corporate Rules Suck", a petition could have been signed, meetings could have been scheduled, leaders lobbied, a vote taken, and maybe, maybe the Milk Can Rule would be repealed. Cost would have been significant in terms of time and energy. 

Option B:  fly under the radar.  Craft a solution where everyone gets almost all of what they wanted in the first place without all the fanfare.

Learning to 'fly under the radar' is an art.  And we can learn it at any stage of our life. It applies to our work, with our parents, siblings, friends, spouses, and neighbors. It is the earnest search for an elegant solution, one that appeals to the self-interest of the constituents while accomplishing the task at hand.

A true master crafts elegant solutions daily. 

As far as I know, Emily Post hasn't revised her etiquette guidelines, so maybe we should keep our clothes on, be congruent and authentic instead of fierce, leave the body parts stuff to our four-legged friends, and just fly under the radar once in awhile.