#04 - The Supreme quest of Alchemy
Hello and welcome to Leadership Sketches, our weekly reality check on Creative Leadership. Every week I will share ideas, thoughts, and best practices on #leadership, #creativity, and everything in between.
We are on our fourth sketch and today I want to share one of my favorite analogies that I frequently use in my courses and in my masterclass.
The Supreme Quest of Alchemy
Before science was a thing, there was alchemy. Alchemy was a proto-science. And one of the supreme quests of alchemy was to transmute lead (Pb), atomic number 82, into gold (Au), atomic number 79.
Is this impossible?
By any means, there is no chemical way that we can get lead to release three protons Chemically, we can't do this, but we could do it with physics.
We could apply a really high amount of energy so that the atoms of lead would release three protons.
Now, interestingly enough, we need so much energy that although it is possible, the resulting amount of gold that we will receive is so tiny that the cost of energy used to get there vastly exceeds the VALUE of the produced gold.
We have lead that has little value, and we want to transform it into a precious element.
This is a wonderful analogy, because often in our businesses, we try to perform this kind of “magic trick”.
We shall always ask ourselves.
Is it worth it?
Is it worth it to put all this energy, all effort into making things work, when by their nature they're broken or by their nature they're not delivering value?
Finding gold is hard. If we look at the process of digging for gold, it's not easy. It takes effort.
But...
it will be far better for us to concentrate on locating gold that will actually benefit our stakeholders. Rather than focusing on something that has no value or little value and applying an immense amount of energy to try to create something that is not necessarily going to be worth it.
Sometimes we need to let go. We need to let go of this idea that everything is possible. Sometimes not everything is possible. But if we look really close,
There is gold to be found.
There is gold in everything we do. And in every organization, there are a couple of gold nuggets. There are little gold nuggets, and sometimes they're very deep, deep into the mountains.
But if we put in the effort, instead of putting all this effort into trying to push a product that is not great or, worse, pushing it just because we have always done it this way, instead of saying:
“Okay, let's take a break and let's refocus, let's start over and let's discover what the real golden nuggets are.”
And yes, they might be hidden. And yes, maybe you've been doing fine with the lead that you have now, but not necessarily. This will actually bring you the desired result. So let me ask you:
How would you find your golden nuggets in your own organization, or within yourself?
What are those little things that, although they look much more challenging and also because they are not in front of our eyes, we have to dig a little bit further to find them? How would you go through the process of discovering these gold nuggets?
As usual, this is Leadership Sketches. I'm Gianluca Cinquepalmi, and don't forget until the next sketch: Inspire, Challenge, and Disrupt.