What used to pertain more to geography and directionality is now often the subject of the digital realm… navigation. As in, the structuring of information so audiences can move through it easily and effectively in an electronic format.

The older applications of the term, however, can still teach us truth. Navigating a body of water required sensitivity to the external elements, the currents, and their changing properties. Navigation also required having an intentional direction, a purposeful vision if you will. Finally, navigation required someone to take the responsibility for steering, for integrating information and making decisions. Sounds a lot like courage.

Business today requires navigational skill, and not just for structuring a web site.

In the wake of public acts of ignorance, self-centeredness, and lack of civility (you know who you are), this word shines today… acuity.

It signals a sharpness of thinking, a keen perception. And as a word all by itself, it just seems to elevate the mind and heart.

Perhaps the aspiration of each day ought to be demonstrable acuity… seeing, hearing, thinking, and speaking with a sharp and keen intellect. We all won’t always live up to that, but it remains a noble aspiration.

The quote goes like this:

Sometimes one must leave the familiar to find the essential.

This simple truth is the propelling idea behind an array of life-activities; things like retreats of varying lengths, ropes course experiences, off-site meetings, sabbaticals, etc. We seek to escape the familiarity-breeds-contempt of the day-to-day by changing our surroundings and routines.

It’s an ancient truth… and it abides today.

Here’s a thought… perhaps we don’t have to do big things. Perhaps we can leave the familiar in small ways, just varying our routines and practices and places in slight ways each day as a signal to ourselves that a focus on the essential is life-giving. Try varying a morning routine, driving or walking a new route, re-arranging a workplace or a kitchen, answering the phone differently.

It only matters if these departures from the familiar remind us of what is essential.

While we all cherish clarity, especially when it comes to decision alternatives, the days and challenges regularly present us instead with ambiguity.

Alternatives are mixed and messy, and the pathways ahead are rarely as neatly defined as we would like. However, greatness emerges from those who embrace ambiguity. Some can even thrive on it.

How is it possible to thrive amidst uncertainty and ambiguity? Well, not by being reckless nor by diving into data and looking for that magic answer that’s rarely there.

Thriving on ambiguity means being reflective, thoughtful, and purposeful, even in small ways. In fact, small forward movement is a key strategy in uncertain times. Making incremental steps amidst ambiguity is a wonderfully effective antidote to the paralysis that too often afflicts us when complexity refuses to be simplified.

Embrace ambiguity and refuse to be stymied. You’ll love the rewards.

Dan Roam in his wonderful book, The Back of the Napkin, makes a key distinction. He notes that the opposite of simple is not complex… the true opposite of simple is elaborate.

When it comes to communication, the highest challenge is not to reduce complexity to simplicity. The real key is to embrace complexity and make it understandable. Of course, Roam believes that visual thinking is a central ingredient in that process.

Too frequently, the clamoring for simplicity is really a facile excuse from lazy people to not do the hard work of embracing complexity and then representing it in understandable media and manner of expression… both words and pictures, which are really the same thing.

The best things in life are complex… we insult them by simplification. We honor them, on the other hand, by embracing their complexity and tackling the challenge of communicating their truth with concise clarity and unfettered understandability.