RICH SOLUTIONS BLOG

  A raft heads down Granite Rapid

Matt and I sat in our kayaks above Granite Rapid on the Colorado River (class 8 out of 10). We were both trying to muster the courage to plunge into the enormous wave train below recognizing the dwarfing effect the waves would have on our little boats.

I tend to be indecisive. I struggle with determining which is the “best” path to take. I become paralyzed analyzing one tack versus another. Looking at Granite Rapid and feeling both the reluctance to descend at all as well as uncertainty about which route or “line” to take, I felt certain there must be the “right” way to do it. In the Organization Development world there is a term called equifinality. It means that there are mutiple ways to reach the same end. In other words, if I have a goal or vision, there are several different ways that I could reach that goal.

I also knew there was more than one way to get down this rapid to make it safely to the bottom. But I didn’t want to mess up. I didn’t want to roll or swim. If I am honest, neither outcome would have been that bad. If I rolled, I rolled. And if I swam, others would collect me at the bottom albeit with my ego bruised. In equifinality, we learn that both in our individual lives and in our organizations, there can be any number of ways to reach a goal. The key is setting the goal in the first place and then taking the first step – the best guess – toward getting there. Then, as you move along, you make course corrections as you go. The goal becomes less elusive.

As I left the comfort of my eddy, I said to Matt, “sometimes you just have to pick your line, brace and react.” Granite Rapid was the ride of a lifetime!

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