A single word can be co-opted by a politician. Today, it’s Barack Obama’s use of the word “extraordinary,” as he refers to certain preferred individuals and groups. In 1979, it was Jimmy Carter’s “malaise,” as he used the word to describe his view of the general comportment of the American people.
Jimmy’s usage rendered the word unusable.
My premise stated, I am resurrecting the word “malaise” from the Jimmy Carter dust bin because it’s just too good of a word to lay fallow. And anyway, “The Defeat of Doldrums,” just doesn’t work for me.
Wikipedia says malaise is a feeling of general discomfort or uneasiness, an “out of sorts” feeling…
Here’s my take on malaise. (My thoughts emerge from my gut-level preoccupation with going to the root of things.)
First, there is personal malaise caused by the current economic body-slam. The unemployed, the underemployed and the employed-but-wondering-for-how-long-employed. Small business owners. Large business owners. Here in Central Oregon, if you’re in the restaurant, construction or furniture business, it’s more than just malaise. It’s a personal train-wreck.
So the individual struggle creates a personal malaise. But there’s an additional underlying level of malaise that is amorphous and general. It lies submerged, as we quietly ask: No matter my individual efforts, will I ultimately drown because of further economic decline that takes everyone down?
Yes, there are the die-hard optimists who sniff at the thought of further economic erosion, but heady optimism can’t obscure the reality that there are a lot of shook-up folks out there. And when people are shook-up, they tend to hunker down and get defensive. Money is not invested. Things are not purchased. People are not hired.
For our business, Centratel, my partner and I are not going to assertively invest in growth until we know what’s up. Is government going to punish us with taxes and restrictions, or will it leave us alone? Are the powers-that-be going to flirt with utter economic destruction or will they back-off and let the free-market pony run itself back to health? Said another way…That’s a beautiful table of china and crystal in the dining room…but why are these people so anxious to yank the carpet out from under it? Here’s another: I’ve got a migraine headache but I wonder why my doctor wants to give me a frontal lobotomy?
Because things are not making sense, people don’t know what to do so they do nothing. Hire or lay off? Sell or acquire? Invest or hoard cash? Too many wallow in this uncertainty, enduring a general malaise that underlies a personal malaise. (Are my partner and I in personal or general malaise? Yes, sort of, in the sense that it’s hard to decide what to do next. But our decision to do little to expand the business has more to do with making a logical decision, rather than personal depression).
There are those who believe there should be complete change in the fundamentals of how this country operates: That’s got to be even worse…shilling for a new order that has been tried over and over elsewhere but has yet to be successful anywhere. I’m betting that, deep down, these folks wonder, is my carpet-yanking really a good thing?
In any case, and notwithstanding one’s political view, from a Work the System mechanical/systems standpoint, what to do about this two-pronged malaise?
Lots! No matter what the situation may be, there is an utterly perfect offensive strategy – and, yes, it’s simple: Take what you do and get damn good at it. Piece by piece, one at a time as if on a conveyor belt, polish each of the systems of your work and your life. Trust that if all the pieces are made perfect, the overall entity will be perfect, too. Concentrate on honing the systems that produce the results and the results will take care of themselves!
Look hard at the survivors around you – the folks who were in business three years ago and who are still in business today. You’ll notice a commonality: These people fixate on perfecting systems that are within their grasps, while they detatch themselves from the details of the things they can’t affect. In positioning themselves in this way, they overcome personal malaise by becoming tremendously efficient, while they defeat general malaise by ignoring it.
So, how does one accomplish this? By standing outside those things that are within personal control; By looking in and poking around. By tweaking the mechanisms that produce the results. And I don’t mean once in a while. Tweaking systems is the full-time new job that replaces the full-time old job – the old job that mostly consisted of fixing bad results. In perfecting one’s systems, bad results are eliminated. Do this, and let your personal pony run.
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