Ingenuity

Ingenuity. An often overlooked aspect of leadership I believe. As I drove to work through the snow this morning I couldn't help but notice a difference in leadership. My area has earned a well-deserved reputation for being paralyzed by snow. We don't have snow very often and therefore have very little snow removal equipment at the government's disposal when we do have snow. This past weekend we were hit with 2 feet of snow.



Now it is true that the school system cancelled school for the whole week. That much has not changed. But leadership can sometimes appear in the subtle moves. As I drove along one of the secondary streets, the cars began to merge ahead. I looked to see what was slowing everyone down. It was two diggers - two bulldozers with scoopers - shovelling up the snow and throwing it aside. Up ahead on the other side of the street were two more. They were doing a great job of clearing the street all the way to the curb. These diggers were private contractors. Someone decided that the old wisdom of taking a week to plow out the streets using the few plows the county owned wasn't going to be good enough. He/She/They believed there was another solution. The diggers were one - however unorthodox.



Sometimes we need to take a chance. Sometimes we need to think broader. Sometimes we just have to do something.



People will still moan that school was cancelled. They will still moan that the side streets aren't cleared. Maybe this digger experiment will prove a good one and next time they can use it more widely. Maybe it will be a bust. Only testing an idea can yield results. Ingenuity. You might have a great solution. Try it.