Business owners all seem to be very busy and over-worked. For most of them, the reason is that most of what they are doing is just creating more things that have to be done, instead of making the business more successful.
Want more time to relax? Stop trying to fix everything.
—Dan Wertenberg
Serial CEO and Vistage Speaker
(Paraphrased.)
The human immune system is a wondrous mechanism. It detects and destroys invading bacteria, viruses, and debris. It is vigilant 24×7 and extends into every tiny and obscure part of our body. Our immune system is adaptable to changing threats because it learns from and emerges stronger from many infections. A fantastic model for an executive to learn from as she designs monitoring and control systems in a business.
The immune system has a flaw that may also be instructive for managers. It can overreact to perceived threats, even to benign occurrences. The common cold and most influenza viruses do trivial damage to our bodies but to our immune systems they so resemble other, deadly viruses that the immune response is exaggerated. The cytokine storm unleashed by the immune system not only causes the fever, swelling, fatigue, and nausea we blame on the infection but can easily destroy the body it strives to protect. The virus does not kill us. Our response does.
Every day, it seems, another disease is added to the long list of aliments caused by our defensive reactions, the immune system turning on the body, the guardian becoming the attacker. Arthritis, narcolepsy, Crohn’s disease, seasonal allergies, and dozens of other afflictions cause suffering only because our immune system is destroying healthy tissue, over-reacting to a minor threat or responding when there is no threat at all.
Autoimmune disease is a huge problem. A fantastic model for an executive to learn from as she designs monitoring and control systems in a business.
I have found that most of my trouble comes from trying to control things that, if left alone, would take care of themselves.
–Ken Wilbur
Contemporary American Philosopher
See also How addicted are you to the illusion of control?
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