Commander Rorke Denver presented at this year’s Leadercast on the theme of bravery.  One of the many things great things he said was to make bold corrections.

This is an act of boldness and bravery.  Changing course is hard. I tend to think in small corrections, not big, bold actions.

Slight corrections work and are required if the exact destination is the same and you are already headed in the right direction, but need to adjust to stay on that heading.  However, if you discover that the place you thought you wanted to go is no longer the correct location, a small correction does not make sense.  It is only logical that you would make a bold correction to head straight at your new destination.  Similarly, if you discover you are headed in the wrong direction, you are not interested in getting closer to the right direction, you are interested in going straight to your destination.

Anyone that has used a GPS device to travel has experienced both of these phenomenon.  I know I have.  I have definitely entered a destination only to later discover that I chose N. 61st instead of S. 61st or that I needed to select the boulevard option instead of the street option of an address.  When that happens, I always corrected the mistake and drove straight at the destination.  I have also had the experience of missing a turn or turned right instead of left.  The GPS is always so helpful by reminding me every 30 seconds to “make a U turn, make a U turn, make a U turn”.  Thanks, I got it!

Yet, in business and in our lives, we make similar discoveries, but tend to prefer slight corrections instead of U turns or giving up on the wrong destination, dismissing it from our mind as the wrong destination and focusing solely on the new destination.  While it is not always as clear in our life destinations as a physical address, I know there have been times that I have continued to go in a direction I knew was no longer correct, making only a slight adjustment.  I have also missed opportunities to make changes and instead of focusing on making the next possible change, will put it off.

For me, it stems from several causes:

• I do not want to admit I was wrong in choosing the first destination
• I am fearful of upsetting the person I sent in that direction
• I hold onto the minuscule value of getting to the wrong destination because we are so close
• I cannot fully articulate the logical reasons behind it, but just have a gut feeling it is the wrong direction, so I wait for the logic
• I overvalue the consistency by making fewer or smaller changes and undervalue the wasted time and effort of finishing the journey in the wrong direction

I have not figured out how to counteract these fears and root causes, but have simply diagnosed it.  Thus, I cannot stop there because the complaint, the diagnosis is only as valuable as the solution it leads to.  More thought is required.