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O P I N I O N
Chaos versus structure
If we want to grow as people and as firms, we have to first find the fine line, and then what’s on either side of it.
C hoice breeds chaos, or so the saying goes. Even so, choice and its inherent disruptions are essential to growth. At least that’s what I believe. And in the context of the workplace, I think that choice is just as important as structure/process. The trick is finding the fine line between the two. To do that, we must first unpack the issue and take a good look at what’s inside.
Brenden Sherrer
I think we have sunken into a place where we assume young professionals are just a bunch of goodie seekers, using choice to find, and indulge in, what they think will please them. In Road to Character , one of my favorite authors, David Brooks, had this to say: “The world has provided (contemporary young people) with a super abundance of neat things to do, naturally they hunger to seize every opportunity and taste every experience … terrified of missing out on anything that looks exciting. By not renouncing any of them (contemporary young people) spread themselves thin. What’s worse (contemporary young people) turn themselves into goodie seekers … exclusively focused on self. If you live in this way you turn into a shrewd tactician making a series of cautious semi-
commitments without really surrendering to some larger purpose. You lose the ability to say 100 noes for the sake of one overwhelming and fulfilling yes.” Admittedly, this is true of a wide swath of young professionals. We tend to see the shiny thing that is fleeting. It has no basis in an overall goal, it simply satisfies the itch that it has created. Our attraction to whatever it may be is based more out of fear of missing out than it is driven by purposeful need. But, can the same not be said about a wide swath of firms as well? Has choice turned into goodie seeking? Have you as a firm spread yourself so thin that you’re unable to focus on the one overwhelming and fulfilling yes? Does
See BRENDEN SHERRER, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER November 5, 2018, ISSUE 1271
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