Chaos is a Ladder. Volatility is Opportunity.
Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given the chance to climb—they refuse. They cling to the realm of the gods or love . . . illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.
- Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish
Game of Thrones
Season 3, Episode 6
Kings value their advisors less during times of tranquility and peace.
Captains need little advice sailing calm waters.
Bond traders have fewer opportunities in efficient markets.
It’s in times of chaos, volatility, and felt uncertainty (life is inherently uncertain, but it doesn’t always feel that way) that good counsel increases in value.
Uncertainty in construction is now felt.
Interest rates are spiking. Commodity prices are volatile. The labor shortage. The inevitable march of the Baby Boomer generation. The mental health crisis in construction that results in a suicide rate twice the national average.
For leaders at all levels, this uncertainty is a ladder.
It’s an opportunity to elevate your value, to bring people and ideas together in new ways.
Construction, it’s often said, is a “relationship business.” Who you know is arguably more important than what you know.
The implication is that, despite being a trillion-dollar global industry, it's actually quite small.
The relationships you build with people have enormous impact.
While this is certainly true, the power of personal relationships is but one dimension of leadership. The force multiplier of leadership—the second power—is intentional relationships with new ideas.
Unintentionally generating ideas is easy.
Your brain naturally whips up an endless series of ideas that flit through your consciousness.
Intentionally generating ideas, on the other hand, to share with people in your network to help them solve persistent issues and then develop confidence—despite the uncertainty—is hard.
Discovering the valuable relationships between ideas requires persistent attention, focus, and energy.
This is why most people don’t do it.
Scarcity drives its value.
How do you intentionally build relationships with new ideas?
First, you need something elusive: quiet.
The kind of quiet that comes from powering down your phone (OK fine . . . airplane mode will work too) and thinking.
If this idea—shutting your phone off midday to think deeply—sounds ridiculous, read this next sentence out loud and consider how it feels:
I am too busy to think deeply.
Field Notes from Admired Leadership is a daily email newsletter I subscribe to. In a post titled, The Preferred Gift of Leaders, it notes:
“Notable information worth sharing not only creates insight, but also serves as the catalyst for a new conversation that moves the relationship forward . . . spending the time to find such a rare message suggests an equally rare leader and relationship.”
The rare leader intentionally invests time to mine new ideas for the benefit of others.
It’s a generous act given the fickle nature of ideas. Sometimes the relationships between ideas are slow to form. Or maybe they never form at all.
“Because the ideas leaders uncover are not commonplace or easy to find, those on the receiving end dig in quickly to understand what is so special. What follows is normally a conversation to discuss, debate, or elaborate on what has been shared—which was actually the point all along.”
The second step to intentionally build relationships with new ideas is to sample widely. Stand directly on the railroad tracks of new ideas.
Read Wired magazine every month.
Subscribe to Harvard Business Review.
Get the print edition of ENR.
Watch The Black Godfather on Netflix.
Rewatch Ted Lasso, Season 1.
Speak at the ABC Tech Alliance conference.
Attend AGC’s Annual Convention.
Book LBM Strategies now.
Guest teach to students at your alma mater.
Join me at Jocko Willink’s Muster in Dallas!
Sign up for the Section4 class on brand strategy.
Everyone in your network is the king of their own castle, the captain of their own ship, an investor in their own inefficient market.
Volatility is opportunity—to be thoughtful and generous with new ideas.
Your colleagues and clients need you.
They just might not know how to ask.
Climb the ladder.