Why Gears

In the background to this web page you will see a gear-based mechanism.Think of this as the gears in a mechanical pocket watch. Often I wear a "skeleton" watch; this is a watch were you can see the inner workings. I find these types of watches to be both wonderful pieces of art, and also to be a metaphor for how successful businesses work.

Now as we work together to craft a solution to your problem, a duality often develops. On one level the goal seems simple and straightforward (e.g., tell me what time it is); on another level a smoothly functioning complexity must be made operational to meet that goal (like the inner workings of a mechanical watch). This duality is true of most things in life.

Unfortunately many people have trouble grasping the above concept. On laying out a multi-tiered, cross-functional solution (that is usually rather straightforward and with some work will quickly resolve the problem), most folks turn to me and say something like, "Well, yes, but that will require a bit of work to implement. Suppose we were to do just one thing? Like what could be one simple thing we might do to get us to our goal?"

At this point I pass my skeleton watch across the table, and will ask them to study it. Depending on which watch I have with me, we might chat about its backstory for a moment or two. Then I will ask them to tell me which gear in the watch determines the time? Once you tell me that, then I will tell you the one simple thing you can do that will fix your complex problem.