We all love riddles and we have known of them since childhood. Some people are good at them, and some are not. How long has it been since you stopped and took a few minutes to solve a riddle or two? It could be more recent than you think. Reflect back on your week and consider how many miscommunications, conflicts, missed opportunities and frustrations took place because you did not fully understand what someone was asking or expecting from you. Riddles, at least as I remember them from childhood, are fun. They would cause us to think, maybe have discussions with our friends or parents, and even laugh when we learned the answer was much easier than we thought! Riddles are fun, unless you encounter them in business, and it causes a possible conflict or problem that could have been avoided if we would have just recognized it as it was happening. If we conclude the wrong answer, or find no answer at all, then the fun becomes frustration, and frustration can become many things like contempt for the company, sabotage, missed goals or negative energy.
Now if you are one of our clients, or maybe a friend or family member and think I am talking about you, then you are getting caught up in a riddle too . . . The reality is, it happens to everyone! Begin to notice and listen closely to how many riddles take place around you today. Knowingly and unknowingly, riddles can occur, and our challenge as leaders is to make sure riddles are not causing negative things to happen in our companies. If, in fact, we do want to use riddles in some way, they need to be creating a sense of fun and energy that promotes positive communication.
We hope this newsletter takes a fun look at the dangers of speaking in riddles, and that each one of us realizes that there is only one right answer to this riddle of riddles, namely . . .
How do you stop speaking in riddles? You will have to find out below.
- Jim Paluch
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The History of Riddles
from
Innovate Us
The history of riddles and puzzles can be traced back thousands of years as found by archaeologists. The walls of the ancient temples in Japan, China and Tibet have intriguing puzzles etched on them. Many of them reveal mathematical formulas while some of them were mainly used for games and fun and may have even led to the modern version of board games such as chess. Riddles mostly entail a question that needs to be solved using intelligence and reasoning apart from mere guessing, and they use several strategies that give them a certain twist which is not all that easy to guess. Common techniques would be the use of double meanings or the use of a pun to make the riddle difficult.
RIDDLE #1 - The following is believed to be Theodore Roosevelt's favorite riddle: "I talk, but I do not speak my mind. I hear words, but I do not listen to thoughts. When I wake, all see me. When I sleep, all hear me. Many heads are on my shoulders. Many hands are at my feet. The strongest steel cannot break my visage. But the softest whisper can destroy me."
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Riddles in Business
Too often in our everyday communications at work, there are too many statements or issues left open for interpretation. Leaders can continue forward assuming they were understood, and the person receiving direction avoids seeking more clarification and less ambiguity in hopes that they understood and will get it right. When riddles become part of our communication, it happens for the following reasons:
- "BEATING AROUND THE BUSH" - because we do not want to hurt someone's feelings or be too hard on them.
- "JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS" - Making the mistake of listening to the gossip or grapevine and then not being able to sort through what is fact or fiction, so we draw conclusions that may or may not be true.
- "PANIC" - Pessimistically approaching goals as something we are not going to achieve as opposed to believing in the team and supporting each other to achieve them. We then begin to hint that we may not hit goals or that we will not get a task done instead of directly discussing it and looking at the facts and moving forward to success.
- "DEFLECTION" - We may have frustration in one area of the business or even with ourselves for not getting a project done or missing opportunities and we can begin to create a little ambiguity that keeps things murky drawing attention away from the real problem or issues.
- "DENIAL" - We choose to not see the real problem and create a focus on something else to cover up that problem so as to not have to deal with it . . . or have our ego bruised.
Everyone who has run a company, dealt with people, or had financial responsibilities tugging at their thoughts in the middle of the night has gone through the things above and more. The only course to get back on track and gain the clarity you need to successfully run the business is to practice the three C's: COURAGE, CANDOR, and CONSIDERATION . . . Having the COURAGE to catch ourselves or our team when riddles are clouding the real issues that need addressed or actions that need to happen. Then make sure that CANDOR or good solid open communication becomes the strategy to continuous improvement. Candor is being honest in the meetings and not waiting for it to come out in the "meetings after the meetings." Having CONSIDERATION for the other person is seeing them as a person and not an object, trusting that they really do want the best outcome, seeking to understand then be understood, and being willing to listen to find consensus.
If you would like to read more on The Three C's click here.
RIDDLE #2 - If you look you cannot see me. And if you see me you cannot see anything else. I can make anything you want happen, but later everything goes back to normal. What am I?
RIDDLE #3 -
All alike the students teach
And peer between the open doors
Experience shines its golden light
As the face improves by its reflection in another.
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The Hardest Riddle in the World
Here is what we feel is the hardest riddle in the world: When you look an employee in the eye and say, "Work more efficiently" ... "Sell More stuff" ... "Just do it right!" ... Those are true riddles when the other person does not have enough insight to figure out what more efficiently, more stuff or doing it right means. When we do figure it out, we never know if we are right or not. Of course the same applies to children, spouses and friends. Speak in riddles, and you will most likely not appreciate the results.
If riddles frustrate you, then the one below that Einstein claimed only 2% of the world's population can answer won't be your choice. We've added a few more to keep this fun and to remind ourselves that even the simplest things can be challenging when we are speaking in riddles.
RIDDLE #4
In a street there are five houses, painted five different colors. In each house lives a person of different nationality.
These five home-owners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet.
1. The British man lives in a red house.
2. The Swedish man keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Danish man drinks tea.
4. The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house.
5. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The man living in the center house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The Blends smoker lives next to the one who drinks water.
Who owns the fish?
RIDDLE #5
I'm so fast you can't see me. Though everyone sees straight through me, I don't stop until the day you die. What am I?
RIDDLE #6
Here on Earth, it's always true that a day follows a day. But there is a place where yesterday always follows today!
RIDDLE #7
You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside.
RIDDLE #8
What happens to a small stone that works up its courage?
Did you want to know the answer to the riddles?
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Ambiguity
Our eyes reflect that certain uncertainty
Between you and me.
The never ending
Obsessing over obscurity. Adding,
Subtracting to the mystification of--us.
We are defined with no meaning,
But clearly comprehendible when several
Possible internal interpretations have
Brought an equally equivocal answer to the
Perennial paradox of pleasure and pain, that leads
To a contradictory conundrum of the weary
Wonderment of several potential possibilities
With no deliberate intent to mislead or cause
Ambiguity.
Copyright
© Mike Butler
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Quotes
"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"How to teach people to do what hasn't been done is a great riddle."
- Peter Thiel
"In examinations, the foolish ask questions the wise cannot answer." - Oscar Wilde
"A wise man will never tell his wife to keep quiet. He will tell her she looks beautiful with her mouth closed." - Unknown
"There was this huge world out there, independent of us human beings and standing before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partly accessible to our inspection and thought. The contemplation of that world beckoned like a liberation." - Albert Einstein
"Eventually all the pieces fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moment and know that everything happens for a reason." - Unknown
"Sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doing them with the right people." - Elizabeth Green
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More than a facility tour
More than networking
JP Horizons and the Smart Companies have come together to provide you an exceptional and unique learning experience. In 2016, we will host four Face-2-Face events offered in different regions at premiere landscape facilities, and below are some highlights on the topics we'll be discussing at each location:
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September 20th
Louisville, Ohio
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- Innovations that can improve operations
- Growing leaders who will run the company in the future
- Networking within and outside of the landscape profession
- Monthly financials and getting your team to own the numbers
SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY:
Leadership Around the Campfire on September 19th
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September 29th
Colorado Springs, Colorado
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- The importance of a meaningful MISSION
- The courage to tackle the impossible jobs and win
- Creating and managing multiple profit centers
- Designing and building a new facility
- Building a great Leadership Team
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October 6th
Upper Marlboro, Maryland
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- Building a great culture to attract the greatest people
- Staying committed as owners
- Opening branches and maintaining and improving the processes
- Creating the time to train on safety and the technical skills of landscape management
- A commitment to continuous improvement and learning
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November 2nd
Nanuet, New York
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- Working for high-end customers
- Telling the company's story to attract the customers and employees that best fit the company
- Creating a new website and enhancing your marketing
- The importance of being a contributing corporate citizen
- Implementing new software (or any new idea)
- The challenges and opportunities of a husband and wife team
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Face-to-Face Events are sponsored by the Smart Companies
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Come Alive Outside
Tip of the Day
A small vegetable plot is a wonderful place for kids to experiment, learn processes and see the impact of their actions.
Tip from "Urban Gardening with Kids"
Click
here for a list of past tips.
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Reprint Permission
Feel free to reprint these articles as long as you give proper credit to the author. Please include all of the information that follows in your credit line:
If you want to learn more about the power of PEOPLE SOLUTIONS THAT DRIVE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE, contact:
JP Horizons Inc.
7245 Mildon Drive
Painesville, OH 44077
Phone: (440) 352-8211
Fax: (440) 352-8225
e-mail: jim@jphorizons.com
web site: www.jphorizons.com
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