Pushing Water

The Point

Laws, rules, management, parenting, and mentoring—all follow the same laws of physics. Every action has a reaction that is both equal and opposite. This is the challenge: Leaders can’t make the rules, but only coach by them.

If a leader forbids an activity, some part of that activity is immutable and will reappear at another place, one the leader would not imagine. If the leader had enough insight to guess where it will reappear, then the leader wouldn’t forbid the activity in the first place. Leaders who reject the immutable push water in a pond and call it progress.