Do you really need to reinvent the wheel?

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At age 34, in his letter to Robert Hooke in 1676, Isaac Newton is quoted saying: “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

inspiration with Cynthia Chirinda

At age 34, in his letter to Robert Hooke in 1676, Isaac Newton is quoted saying: “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

Newton is rightly considered one of the giants of science. His work on gravity, calculus and other fields permanently changed the world of physics and mathematics.

Newton drew on several insights from the past. From the Crusades, many Europeans learned about algebra, Arabic numbers and other mathematical advances. Without these conceptual tools, it is difficult to imagine Newton building even more sophisticated mathematics.

The future has no power to design itself

One of the great benefits of living in the 21st century is the ability to learn from the past 20 centuries. From medicine to manufacturing, we are able to improve upon prior experiences, establish best-in-class practices, and crowd-source ideas that create efficiencies, raise quality, and lower cost of work.

In his book titled Buy the Future, Dr Mensa Otabil, a respected Christian statesman, educator, entrepreneur and motivational speaker, asserts that “the future has no power to design itself — it only takes the form and shape of our actions and inactions today.”

After narrating a tale of two paradigms based on the story of Esau and Jacob — two individuals who started life together, grew in different ways, developed different value systems and made different choices about their destinies, he wraps the book by advocating for transformation through a paradigm shift that results from learning to negotiate for a future better than your present.

Do you understand the rhythm?

If you are in leadership, learning from history and those who have gone before you is an indispensable leadership tool. Great leaders build on the accomplishments of those who came before them.

If you lead a large organisation — a company, a country or a church — it is vital that you understand that organisation’s rhythms and nature before you assume a leadership role.

Over the years, in facilitating strategy development on various levels — within the scope of individual’s strategic life plans and on a broader corporate scope for organisations, one of my most significant observations has been that whilst failure can generally be attributed to poor implementation of plans, a subtle yet often overlooked enemy of meaningful progress is found in the form of re-inventing the wheel.

On a personal development level this often comes in the format where an individual for one reason or the other, fails to identify or establish meaningful relationships with appropriate mentors.

A direct result of this is the unnecessary falling into traps or blind spots that could have been avoided under the guidance of a mentoring relationship.

Are you just trying to prove a point?

The expression “reinvent the wheel,” is an English saying that is largely used to describe an exercise in futility. Many people will say, “Don’t reinvent the wheel” when they are starting upon a task, meaning that some foundational aspects of the task do not need to be changed or replicated, as this would be a waste of time.

On a corporate/organisational/institutional level, one of the ills that hinder progress, scatters resources and keeps the organisation from making headway is found in the new generation of leadership who in some instances expend much needed time and resources to prove a point that they can outdo the previous leadership of the organisation at any cost.

In meetings at corporations around the world, the wise suffer as they are trapped in rooms where debate rages over how to solve a problem in spite of the fact that the problem has already been solved, just not by someone in the room — and solutions from outside are ignored.

According to author Scott Berkun, this is the disease known as “NIH,” or “Not Invented Here” syndrome.

Scott believes that the key reason people look to reinvent things is that they do not know what has already been done. Ignorance, one way or another, is the leading cause of wasted effort everywhere.

People who do not spend time studying the problems they are trying to solve are bound to reinvent something and likely not nearly as well.

There are only so many ways to design a website, a marketing campaign, or even a product strategy. Instead of driving work teams into further brainstorming sessions, it would be wise to ask: Who else has tried to solve this problem?

Can we learn from what they have done? The second reason for reinvention pertains to ego and rewards.

In many corporations there is more prestige to be gained for making something new than for reusing work done elsewhere in the company or industry.

This is true even when the newly made thing is much worse that what already existed.

In Wole Sonyika’s words, “the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others”.

As we position ourselves to buy the future, it is important to understand that how we formulate our choices now becomes crucial to the quality of life we live in the future.

It is important to identify those whose lives model the patterns we hope to build our life around and make them our role models and mentors.

λ Cynthia Chirinda is an organisational and personal development consultant, a life coach, author, and strategist. Her two new additions to the Connection Factor Collection — The Connection Factor for Leaders and The Connection Factor for Women — speak to matters that position organisational leaders and women respectively, to achieve greater levels of success through their strategic connections. Looking at improving your career, personal effectiveness, communication skills, relationships, focus, faith and happiness? Wholeness Incorporated Coaching offers you strategies you can implement today to review your progress and achieve your goals. E-mail: [email protected]. LinkedIn: Cynthia Chirinda Hakutangwi. Mobile: 263 717 013 206. Website: www.cynthiac.net.in