Avoiding escape hatches

A very successful businessman went to visit his new son-in-law.

He said to him, “I love my daughter, and now I welcome you into the family. To show you how much we care for you, I’m making you a 50-50 partner in my business. All you have to do is go to the factory every day and learn how everything works.”

The son-in-law said, “That’s very kind of you, but I hate factories. I can’t stand the noise.”

“Oh, I see,” said the father-in-law. “In that case, you can work in the office and take charge of some of the operations there.”

“That’s very kind of you, but I hate office work too,” said the son-in-law. “I can’t stand being stuck behind a desk in an office all day, every day.”

“Wait a minute,” said the father-in-law who was getting a little annoyed now. “I just made you half-owner of a huge money-making organization, but you don’t like factories, and you won’t work in an office. What am I going to do with you?”

“Easy,” said the young man. “Buy me out.”

Well, what do you know? Is this guy smart or is he just a plain jerk? I think he is both, but more on the second part. Some people are smart, but they use their smartness in the wrong way. They can come up with a thousand and one reasons, or alibis as escape hatch when things either do not go well or they want to escape responsibility.

We need to reflect on this because you and I are not exempted when the “escape hatch” syndrome attacks. Escape hatch is a secondary means of escape in the event when things do not go as planned. Todd Henry points them out. These are in his own words:

1. Procrastination. Ever wonder why the urge to watch an episode (or two, or three...) of your favorite Netflix series always swells when you have a lot of critical work on your plate? Or, why you always seem to jump into your email or slack when you know you need to be making progress on an important project? Procrastination is an escape hatch because it gives you an excuse if things don’t go well. “Well, I was up against the wall and didn’t have the time I needed to do this the right way. I could have done much better if I’d had more time.” To counter procrastination, set step goals to meter your daily progress. (Then, once your work is done, watch as many shows as you’d like...)

Lesson: Procrastination can rob you of your best work.

2. Dilution. Some people fill their work (and life) portfolios with so many priorities that they can’t make significant progress on any of them. They are moving a wall forward an inch at a time rather than focusing their effort on the handful of things that matter. As I wrote about in The Accidental Creative, the best counter-measure for dilution is to establish your “big 3” priorities, or open creative loops, and keep them front and center in your work.

Todd Henry asks: Are you trying to focus on too many things in order to avoid putting all of your eggs in a few baskets?

3. Rationalization. This one’s very common on creative teams. We backward-rationalize why something was successful even though it was very different from the original objective. If this dynamic is present in your team, it will lead to a lack of accountability and an overall culture of blame-shifting and malaise. There needs to be specific accountability for results, and clear responsibility when things fail. In truth, everyone knows what really happened.

Todd Henry asks: Are you backward-rationalizing a failure as success in order to protect yourself from accountability?

Any of these “escape hatches” can prevent you from performing at your best. Take some time this week to consider if any of them might be affecting your personal or teamwork dynamics. Todd Henry writes a brilliant book entitled: “Accidental Creative.” I have read it, enjoyed it tremendously, and find it useful in helping me focus and deliver quality of work.

Escape hatches, ironically, imprison people into a life of mediocrity and complacency. There is no escape here, and it only imprisons more. Somebody said: “The person who wants to do something finds a way; the other person finds an excuse.

Benjamin Franklin said: “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else” and this is so true. This person fails to understand one crucial thing: that the person who is so creative in coming up with excuses should have allocated the same creative energy into learning things and improving himself.

Success is a goal that is available only for people who have stopped making excuses and has started getting serious with wanting it and not just posting about it in their digital spaces. It is better to make an effort rather than make excuses. Drop excuses and begin to show results. Trust me, it is better this way.

(The last two runs of Level Up Leadership have been well received and there are many requests coming in to do another one soon. However, the schedule is tight with prior commitments and the next Level Up Leadership will run on May 21 and 22 at Seda Vertis North, Quezon City. For registration or inquiries contact April at +63928-559-1798 or register online at www.levelupleadership.ph)