Buying-in

By Kodwo BRUMPON

“A snake sheds its skin, but never its poison.” – African proverb

Ideas and visions have had a long history of intellectual fascination, from the desire by the first man to cover his nudeness up to our present cravings of making our planet sustainable.

We see them as illuminators that help us live more intelligently and freely. They serve as rallying calls of hope to live wonderfully. And where there is hope, there is everything.

It is perhaps not surprising why ideas and vision have become enigmatic forces that occupy the forethoughts of those who lead and those who are led alike, in the last half century; an era where we have also witnessed leadership elbow management from the top position in corporate politics.

With such insight, there is a natural inclination to give ideas a weight and visions some importance.

Yet for all of our musings on ideas and visions, many among us, scarcely buy-into one when presented with it. Instead, we are quick to point out the flaws, and criticize the themes.

And in cases where we show signs of interest, we behave more like the snail, unwillingly dragging ourselves along the ground, with great difficulty in order to move from ignorance to acceptance.

It is more of an attitudinal problem that smirks of, ‘it is not our idea or it is not coming from our camp’ therefore we would display neither action nor energy. We behave like the dying caught between bouts of sleep.

We would love to act, but our wills have been mashed in nothingness to the point where we lack the courage or the force to accomplish that which we desire.

Sometime, the picture is gloomy because the surprising majority of idea and visions floating about in the modern-sphere are dreamed and drawn just to fulfill the aspirations of their owners and their cronies. They are selfishly driven and so cannot become ideals.

They have no impacts designed in them, save for the ‘let’s make the most out of the situation;’ and so they become movements that has no action, and no energy to sustain it when the going gets tough.

It might not sound blissful in our ears, but the reality is that even though we all are capable of generating ideas and carving out visions, only a handful amongst us are endowed and equipped with the creative abilities and the goodness of heart to design ones that can drive organisations and societies to greater heights.

It is true that every idea and vision in appearance at least generates some excitement and get people all worked up. But it is really difficult to sustain the initial excitement unless people can sense it is about them and for them.

We have to understand that just because it is a great idea or a wonderful vision does not mean people have to embrace it.

Ideas and visions in actuality have to touch people, they need to nudge them, and they have to be inspiring before people buy into them. That is what would sustain their enthusiasm.

That is why the intentions behind ideas and visions are extremely important. It needs a spark of fire hidden under a heap of ashes to keep it warm and burning even when there is no smoke.

We need to understand that our perceptions of what ideas and visions offer us are bounded in our judgment – self-judgment in particular. On the surface, we greatly exaggerate the outward appearance, but the inside hits us with questions of how true is it, what good would come out of it and how beautiful would it look in the end.

Our attitudes in times like this are entwined with the deepest conflicts surrounding our individual aspirations and thrive of our humanity. We desire to choose the greater good, all things being equal, but the sometimes we cower in the face of indecision and we choose selfishly.

On the whole, the larger population buys into ideas and visions when we are satisfied on the inside and on the outside that it would serve our good and that of our humanity. That is when we embrace them, and look at them as if they were our own.

It becomes the moments when we believe the ideals are bold enough, and that they should go viral. We sense them as belonging to us and pass them on like good news.

We become enthused about them and think through them as if they had come from ourselves.

We connect them to our best understanding of living; one mannered in pleasantries, where our real interests are respected; and good taste, decorum, strength, magnificence, and so forth thrives.

Every time we buy into an idea or vision, we carve a projective idealization of life and submerge our romanticized version of humanity into it. We begin to see ‘what we are missing,’ ‘what will be different,’ ‘what can be,’ and ‘how we will live it.’ We blush to the thoughts of such hope and notice perfections that send us on the admiration trail.

We develop strong passions and sharp pleasures about the future, and that energises us to crystallise our satisfactions about the ideals. To this end, those of us who craft visions and think of ideas should understand the aspirations and longings of the masses, to aid in the final design…

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Kodwo Brumpon is an executive coach at Polygon Oval, a forward-thinking Pan African management consultancy and social impact firm driven by data analytics, with a focus on understanding the extraordinary potential and needs of organisations and businesses to help them cultivate synergies, that catapults into their strategic growth, and certifies their sustainability.

Comments, suggestions, and requests for talks and training should be sent to him at [email protected]

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