My email to leaders in Reno County from Monday, 11/12/12:
Continuing a series we began a couple of weeks ago on diagnosing the situation, remember last time we thought about the importance of diagnosing. Today? “Why do people misdiagnose the situation? Two reasons stand out:
“Don’t Just Stand There, Do Something. When a community or organization is facing a difficult issue, there is almost always tremendous pressure, especially on those in authority, to act, to do something, making it difficult to spend the time necessary to do a deep diagnosis. In the complex economic meltdown in the fall of 2008, President George W. Bush and the Congress took unprecedented steps in a matter of days. Inaction would not have been easily tolerated by the public.” (Taken from The Competencies For Civic Leadership, pp.2-3)
While most of us are go-getters and recognize the need for action, we can easily rush into action plans at the neglect of diagnosis. This may later reveal that actually we did misdiagnose the situation. So, today, realize that part of your action in solving a problem may very well be hitting the pause button on that action plan and seeking some diagnosis so that wise(r) plans are made.
We’ll look at another way we tend to misdiagnose next week. Thanks for taking time to consider this important step today. Take time to diagnose and see if it doesn’t help us make progress on the issues we care about deeply.
