There is always something about the nature way of how things work that is awaiting to be discovered or rediscovered ... Sometime this something lies in friendship
3+ weeks ago, I went for a run in the early morning and an accident occurred. I twisted one of my right leg joints that is between my toes and my right foot. I don’t know what have happened. One moment I was running fine, the next moment I felt a sudden sharp pain on my right leg. Initially, I thought it was gout and went on to take my gout medicine. I went to see a doctor and told him that I might be having a gout attack. Interestingly, I was prescribed with more gout medicine. Talking about planting thoughts in the mind of people. 
But one week passed and the pain persisted. Hence, I knew it can’t be gout. I started applying a TCM medicine called Zheng Gu Shui on my own. I got so worried about it that I applied too much and too often until an abrasion was developed. I went to see the same doctor again and this time I was given a ‘high class’ plaster which by the end of 2 weeks, I knew it wasn’t working well. So much for being ‘high class’.
I was itching for exercise everyday but the soreness of my right leg prevented me from doing almost anything. As week 3 approached, I decided to spend some time to reflect upon what should be my next step. I thought about ideas from my earlier posting on the benefits of getting injured and decided that since I can’t do any ‘impact’ exercise, swimming appears to be one of the best options. Hence, for the last 1 weeks, I have been swimming.
Others, it can be a place or a moment in time ... if only we take time to observe and reflect
As I was swimming my usual laps today, a random thought suddenly dawn upon me. I realize that the ‘mechanism’ that enables one to excel in swimming or running is very different. In running, your primary goal is to develop your ability to endure the punishments of running longer. By being able to endure longer, you can then develop speed over time. Hence, endurance plays a critical role in making you a better runner. In swimming, your primary goal is to develop your ability to strategize and coordinate your body movement. The better you are at strategizing which parts of your body move in water and coordinating them to move well, the faster you can ‘glide’ through the water and the longer you can swim. Hence, strategizing and coordination plays a critical role in making you a better swimmer.
Now if I am to think of developing the ability to run and swim as organization capabilities and the medium (i.e. air and water) as the competitive context of an organization. I would have come to this conclusion: In an unrestricted environment (i.e. air – where we met with little resistance in all our movements), an organization can thrive by developing organization endurance (a form of resilience to bounce back from constant disruptive happenings in such an environment and survive); In a restricted environment (i.e. water – where every movement is met with resistance), an organization can thrive by developing organization collaboration (a form of capability where organization develops systemic insight on how to strategize its critical parts and collaborate the “parts’ movement” effectively and efficiently).
It seems to me that the best lesson in life is taught by Nature. It may be still far fetch to claim that I have discovered a ground breaking idea. But my point is if we are to spend some time observing Nature and reflecting upon the lessons that it is teaching us, we can become really good in everything we do. Don’t you think so?
