When the family needs beach time and an infusion of saltwater living, we head to Alligator Point in Northwest Florida. It’s just over a two hour drive away and has miles of beach access on the Gulf of Mexico.
On one particular trip, we rented a house that was just 20 paces from the water. While we keep a sport fishing boat at a nearby marina, it is also satisfying (and super convenient) to fish from the beach. Using long, stout, surf poles made for that purpose, the basic procedure is to rig up with whatever bait you are going to use, then walk out as far as you can walk into the water, throw the line as far as you can, then retreat back to the beach and monitor for a big strike.
My son and I attacked the first day of surf fishing. We repeated the above procedure dozens of times. For our efforts, we were rewarded with a steady stream of saltwater catfish. Not only are these catfish not good to eat, but they have sharp spines in their fins that can cause a nasty and painful welt. Discouraged, but not defeated, the next day, we once again went out to surf fish. But, the weather had whipped up the surf, making it dangerous to wade out into the water to get additional distance on our casts. Well, when you are faced with lemons, you make lemonade. We walked to the water’s edge and threw out as far as we could and waited for the big strike.
And the big strike came. We caught our limit of sea trout, plus some nice sized whiting and to top it off, I caught a 5 lb black drum. Yummy! It’s always exciting to catch fish since you are never guaranteed a successful day (they call it fishing, not catching …). But, why was this day so successful when the day before yielded virtually nothing? Perhaps the answer lies in where we were fishing.
The Gulf has numerous sandbars and fish often run in between the beach and sandbar looking for food. Perhaps, when we were walking out 50 yards into the gulf, we were throwing our bait out past the optimum strike area. The storm forced us to remain on the beach, with the unintended, but super helpful result that we were landing our casts square in the path of cruising fish. Sweet!
The point is that we have to be observant of the current situation and make good decisions without relying on our autopilot thinking. I walk out into the water to cast because … I ALWAYS walk out into the water to cast. I am just on autopilot, not strategically thinking. Using this example, strategic thinking would have had us try different casting distances on the first day, especially since there was no action for the fish we were trying to catch. Why would we keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? Tradition and autopilot thinking.
What critical components of your thinking are on autopilot? Where in your organization are you casting again and again to the same spot, but no longer realizing any positive benefit? Start thinking creatively about how adjustments can be made that will explore new avenues for success and don’t be afraid of a coming storm. You may just learn a valuable lesson that would have otherwise blown by.