The Virtue Of Resoluteness
Seven: Resoluteness.
It used to be said among the samurai culture in ancient Japan that in order to be an enlightened warrior one had to have “a resolute acceptance of death”. What was meant by this is that one cannot be effective in battle if he seeks to protect his own life. Hence, by accepting that death is imminent and welcomed, one could stay focused on the second-by-second action of the fight without being distracted by fear or the thought of pending doom. This is a fundamental element of the ability, or skill, of creating focus. In battle, it is far more important to be present to the reality of the moment than a hypothetical outcome.
It is often difficult to “stay in the moment”, especially under stress. Emotions leap into our consciousness like partridges under foot. Thoughts of failure so completely fill our mind with foreboding when we are afraid that we cannot be present to what is actually happening. Often our anxiety makes our problems much bigger than they really are. This is a very poor way to undertake any kind of challenge.
The principle enemy of resoluteness is doubt. In other words, “resolution” means that all of the preliminary issues are resolved, hence the name. When we are sure that our actions are as good as we can make them and we believe that we are absolutely doing our best, we tend not to falter. This is because our mind stays on target without distraction or doubt. It is when we stop and worry that perhaps we are not doing the right thing or that our target is too much for us that we take our eyes off of what is happening to enter the confusion of re-evaluation and doubt. It is usually these types of distractions that cause mistakes and errors in judgment.
Resoluteness requires that we have thought the entire matter through and have chosen an action or made a decision that we intend to stand behind come hell or high water. Doubt weakens our resolve because it represents issues that we have not completely worked through. Many people make some of their biggest life decisions without thorough consideration. They get weighed down by “pro versus con” evaluations that in many cases cannot be fully resolved because of the subjective nature of the issue.
Sometimes we have to take resolute action without knowing all of the facts or everything about how something works because of the natural limitations of our situation. Harry Truman said two simple things about decision making that demonstrate resoluteness well. First, he said, “[a]ll my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.” In other words, once a decision is made the door is closed to doubt and waffling re-evaluation. The second thing he said was “[w]henever I make a bum decision, I go out and make another one.” This is an important observation about resolution. Being resolved does not mean that you are pig-headed or blind. It simply means that you have decided on a course of action. In your best assessment is not effective then it is time to make a new decision. The point is that resolution is the act of generating focused intentionality in the form of precise choices and targets without allowing your mind to be weakened by doubt and on-going consideration. It may very well turn out that you were wrong, but intentional action will get to that realization much quicker than a mind divided by a variety of unresolved considerations. Better to proceed directly to failure than waffle in the mire of no progress at all. Failure is progress. It clearly tells you how not to do it.
Thoroughness is an essential element of resolution. Taking into account the facts and the needs that must be accommodated in a decision starts by taking an mindful inventory of the landscape that will become the context of the resolute action. But equally important is knowing how you want the matter to turn out. Too often, we allow the “pros and cons” and our feeble, half-informed assessment of them to determine the outcome. This is not resoluteness, this is resignation at best and confusion at worst.
In every challenge, no matter how big or small, one must be clear about what it is he is creating. A team that goes into a game fearful of its opponent and hoping to avoid a humiliating defeat may keep the score reasonably close, but will never win because it does not have victory as its goal. Resoluteness is the act of taking a committed stand for a specific outcome. It is a mental line in the sand, so to speak. It is to say that the struggle will turn out either with a specific result or failure and nothing in between. What is resolved is the goal, the absolute effort that will be made and the absence of any other alternative. It is a state of mind that can be described as pure intentionality. Resoluteness is not about success or failure. Until victory of failure is born, it is a purely hypothetical concern. Therefore, one cannot plan for victory, one can only plan for the struggle. A person acting resolutely has already decided that she is stepping into the moment with only the intention to undertake certain things. The outcome will depend on how skillfully the intention was executed. Therefore, it is better to focus on building a solid bridge nail by nail, board by board rather than daydreaming about what it will be like to cross over it. If you put integrity in the parts, the whole will take care of itself.
The reason that resoluteness can be so valuable is because it is a very efficient way of thinking. It is by definition focused. It is, in fact, the very act of eliminating all of the mental barriers that stands in the way of a choice and the result. It should never be confused with fanaticism or zealousness. While these may be highly intentional mental states, they are based on belief and not fact.
A person acting resolutely states what she is going to cause and then looks at every moment for the opportunities and resources to cause that result. This, too, is part of the focus that comes from this particular state of mind. The mind is not distracted by the unknown outcome, it focused on the task immediately knowable and in front of you. You could say that resolute action is biased in favor of the outcome and that would be correct, but it is absolutely objective in its assessment of where one stands in relationship to the present situation and is always working from what is available to be worked into a path to the result.
Resoluteness does not require consideration of all of the alternatives, it merely needs those things that can be innovated into the result within the ethical and efficiency limitations of the moment. In other words, resolution can seem to start from the end and work backwards. One picks a goal and then builds the bridge to it using the resources available or those resources that can be repurposed or innovated into an element of the solution. Because a resolute decision is not trying to do everything, but is only trying to do one thing, it does not need a million ways to get there, it only needs one – preferably the most effective way – but only one way just the same.
A nobility-based organization is a high-performance environment. That means that we expect our teams to accomplish exceptional results under difficult circumstances, when necessary. It also means that we expect outstanding failures from time to time.
A person acting resolutely gives her all. There is no trying. There is only doing. Team members assess, decide and act. If their assessments or actions do not produce the results, then they re-assess, decide and act again. What they do not do is wallow in indecision – they are always moving toward a goal.
A person who gives their all is absolutely blameless. They either succeed or fail. Both success and failure are paths to effectiveness. Success shows you what works. Failure shows you what does not work. When you are aware of both you can move quickly toward the result you wish to produce.
No company has only success. Both success and failure are equally acceptable results provided that there was total effort. In such a case, there is nothing to be said about one’s effort because it was maximum — regardless of the outcome. It is our custom to examine the outcome to see what we can learn from it. Sometimes we notice skillfulness and acknowledge it and pass it on to our teammates. Sometimes we notice failure and we study it to identify what we did not know and use this knowledge to create success. Either way it is just what is so and what there is to manage.
Because we practice mindfulness, there is no hope of looking good or concealing those things that we did not accomplish because we quit or did not keep our word. Everyone will see through the circumstances to the truth of the matter. Because we practice compassion and fairness no one will be humiliated, even if they quit or ignored their promise, but because we are resolute, we will not let it slide either. In short, we are devoted to what is so, whether it benefits us or not. We are devoted to giving our best effort even if that leads to absolute failure. We are devoted to graciously coming to the aid of our teammates to cause what we said shall be and we will stand together whether we are successful or get wiped off the face of the earth.
These are not merely the tenets of a company culture, but an entire way of life that we bring not only to the domain of a noble business organization but into our communities, families and circles of friends. It is what the world can count on from us and what we can count on from each other. It is only hokey and cynical if we say it is and utterly magnificent if we allow ourselves to transcend our doubt and commit ourselves to it.
We are self-made, self-determined and the first, last and only ones accountable for creating this enterprise, our families and ourselves — because we say so.
Hence, all things rest, in the end, on our resoluteness, our ability to remove doubt and cynicism from our minds, to do what we said we would do in face of a universe that is most indifferent to our cause.
In the end there is only one guiding principle to a nobility-based organizational design: life and businesses both need to be tailored to the human spirit because it is the human spirit that powers them.
