On a recent return trip from Alabama where I had spent a week cycling, the instrument panel of my Subaru Outback Wagon suddenly began flashing and if the “Sub”could have talked it would have shouted “Warning! Warning! Warning! Will Robinson”. The window wipers slowed down, the power steering failed and my cycling buddy Chris started hypothesizing about the probable cause …Battery? Alternator? Cyber Attack? Chris quickly located the nearest service center with his smart phone and we pulled off the freeway into Montgomery, AL. It being Saturday morning we weren’t too hopeful that we would find a place that could diagnose the problem, make the repair and send us on our way without too much delay.

“… I once had a pet pine squirrel named Omar who lived in the cotton secret and springy dark of our old green davenport; Omar knew that davenport; he knew from the Inside what I only sat on from the Out, and trusted his knowledge to keep him from being squashed by my ignorance. He survived until a red plaid blanket – spread to camouflage the worn-out Outside – confused him so he lost faith in his familiarity with the In. Instead of trying to incorporate a plaid exterior into the scheme of his world he moved to the rainspout at the back of the house and was drowned in the first fall shower, probably still blaming that blanket: damn this world that just won’t hold still for us!” Ken Kesey, “Sometimes a Great Notion”

This has come up several times in sessions that I’ve led over the past few months. Reflecting back on why goals or rocks weren’t achieved during the prior year or quarter, leaders have realized that they, their boss or peers wasted time doing “dumb stuff”. What was so powerful in these sessions was that leaders were willing to call each other out.

“A man ordinarily has time to do all the things he really wants to do.” Anonymous

Shiny stuff is akin to the “sirens song” of Homer’s Odyssey, a promising beginning that ends with a bad result. Just as the sirens of mythology lured sailors to their deaths, “shiny stuff” could potentially sink your boat.