During my carpentry apprenticeship years, I heard the phrase so many as it was repeated to us (the newly hired or apprentices), \u201ccut once, so measure twice.\u201d When you heard something repeat and repeat so many times, it becomes annoying, but it becomes part of you. In my first year as an carpentry apprentice, I remembered getting into trouble because of assumption. I ended up wasting time and wasting materials as well. \u00a0When I was in school assumption was accepted in mathematics and science, but I learned that not in the field of construction where \u201ccut once, measure twice\u201d is a golden rule.<\/p>\n
Dr. Daniel Kahneman in his book, \u201cThinking, Fast and Slow,\u201d has explained how our mind influences our critical thinking and problem-solving. As Dr. Kahneman emphasized his point by the two systems \u2013 which he named system 1 and system 2, I see myself as person or a leader that most often relied on the system 1. I often acted intuitively and so sudden that sometimes I regretted what I had said. I felt that my mouth should have waited for my thinking, which is what the system 2 has referred to by Dr. Kahneman (Thinking Fast and Slow, 2011).<\/p>\n
As an individual and as a leader, what is the takeaway? Should we aspire to master one system over the other? Or should we work toward improvement within both systems? Well, as leaders, we have responsibility toward leading the followers to the intended objective or toward the shared goal.<\/p>\n
When I think of the system 1, I think of impromptu responses; though they may be two different concepts, I believe that impromptu responses is an essential skill that any leader should possess. Judith Humphrey, in her book, \u201cImpromptu: Leading in the Moments,\u201d point out that leaders should possess the skills to \u201cthink on their feet\u201d and to \u201crespond eloquently\u201d in every situation. They must be able to attentively listen, process it and then respond immediately. She continued by pointing out that to develop this skill (impromptu), one must be prepared for spontaneity. (Humphrey, 2017).<\/p>\n
While system 1 is mainly fast responding without much calculation or reasoning, we can still train ourselves to quick response with reasonable answer. \u201cIn the face of rapid transformation and increasing uncertainty, the ability to improvise has become more important than ever. But what does it take to develop improvisational skills? ().\u201d This is a portion of a brief summary of an article in the Harvard Business Review titled, \u201cImprovisation Takes Practice,\u201d by Mannucci, Orazi, and Valck. Resulting from their observations, three types of improvisations were identified: imitative, reactive and generative. These three occurred sequentially (Mannucci et al, 2021).<\/p>\n
The practical meaning of \u201ccut once, measure twice,\u201d is basically preparedness, which is the golden rule I heard a lot in my earlier years. I brought that up because I believe we can improve ourselves in what is called \u201csystem 1\u201d through preparedness and adaptability, especially in our leadership roles. As Mr. Benjamin Franklin said, \u201cBy failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.\u201d Training our systems to work as one would be training our mind to work as one unit since they are one.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reference:<\/strong><\/p>\n Kahneman, D. (2011). \u201cThinking, Fast and Slow.\u201d New York, NY. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.<\/p>\n Humphrey, J. (2017). \u201cImpromptu: Leading in the Moment.\u201d Hoboken, NJ. Wiley.<\/p>\n Mannucci, P.V., Orazi, D.C., & Valck, K. (2021, March 11). \u201cImprovisation Takes Practice.\u201d Harvard Business Review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During my carpentry apprenticeship years, I heard the phrase so many as it was repeated to us (the newly hired or apprentices), \u201ccut once, so measure twice.\u201d When you heard something repeat and repeat so many times, it becomes annoying, but it becomes part of you. In my first year as an carpentry apprentice, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31600,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31599\/revisions\/31600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}