There are two major categories of problems that you encounter on the leadership journey: fly problems and butterfly problems.
Fly problems are primarily technical in nature and can be resolved using technical know-how and historically proven expertise. These problems are like bothersome flies that can be dispatched with an expertly handled fly swatter.
Butterfly problems are quite different. They confront you, not simply with a more complicated technical issue, but with a fundamental life challenge. The resolution of butterfly problems require a fundamental reorientation of identity.
You have outgrown the beliefs, attitudes, images, structures, and goals that defined your life and work. The ways of thinking and acting that have worked in the past are not up to the challenge that you face. The self that you identified with has become outmoded.
It is “butterfly” time. Time for turning inward and allowing the certainties of the past to dissolve away. It is a gooey time. A messy time. But, also the prelude to profound transformation.
- What are the fly problems that you are confronting in your life and work?
- What expertise is needed to solve them?
- What are the butterfly problems you are confronting in your life and work?
- What is your attitude towards the necessary dissolving of your old sense of identity?
- How do you make time for stillness and silence?
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Jose // May 13, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Eric:
Thanks for a Beautiful and Enlightening Post….
All Us seem to have quite a Butterfly Opportunity on our hands….
2 Eric // May 13, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Thank you, Jose.
Let others know – let’s expand the conversation.
E
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