Introducing 2-fer Tuesdays! Differences vs Distinctions, Ideas vs insights

Following up my recent BLUF and SBAR pieces that show the value of clear, concise communication, and taking into consideration my ever-growing list of future article topics, I’ve decided to put out a special “2-fer Tuesday” article series where each Tuesday I’ll share 2 critical distinctions that I’ve seen yield powerful insights that have directly spurred significant transformational shifts in myself and in clients too. I’ll also conclude each piece with a “2-fer” of take-away suggestions for how to apply these distinctions in your life as an individual as well as in your role as a Leader.

To help get this new series off on the right foot I’ll start by framing out and briefly unpacking the importance of correctly understanding and appreciating the Differences vs Distinctions distinction and also the Idea vs Insight distinctions. Why these? In today’s VUCA world, the ability to see and appreciate critical distinctions leads directly to deeper personal insight, which then better empowers you as the Agent to make better decisions and take wiser courses of Action.

Hopefully these 2 initial offerings are not only useful to you in your everyday life, but also inspire you to check back next week to see what’s coming up next.

Oh, and please feel free to share your thoughts on these in the comments and/or suggest further topics for me to touch upon in the future!

1)    Differences vs Distinctions – Differences as a term simply indicates “not the same,” and is often used in very general and not very helpful ways. Distinctions, on the other hand, are ways to nail down the specifics of HOW things are different, to WHAT degree, WHERE these differences matter, and WHY they are and/or are not relevant.

Take away for you individually: Different is rarely sufficient for making decisions and taking action. Dive deeper into both quantitative and qualitative distinctions to better appreciate the HOW, WHAT, WHERE, and WHY and more fully flesh out your perceptual matrix.

Take away for your Leadership: As busy Leaders and Executives, we need to help our teams build greater awareness of what we need from them to make the best decisions for the organization as a whole. Pushing them to dive deeper into differences in search of more clarity around the granular distinctions in play can go a long way to increasing their effectiveness and increasing your efficiency (hint for one of next week’s items...)

2)    Idea vs Insight – It’s often been said that ideas are some of the most powerful forces in play for organizing and connecting people. And that is very true, especially for organizing teams and groups to a common purpose. However, the true measure of any idea isn’t really its content, but its impact. More specifically, the impact of an idea, any idea, is only as powerful as the insight it generates in you as an individual.  In other words, insight is what turns information into transformation.

As I covered in last week’s article, the “aha!” flash of insight is the initial experience of that impact, even as the further implications take more time to trickle down and unfold. In this context, insight means the way that the initial idea connects into your mind and how your mind then reorganizes to a higher level of coherence as a result of that connecting. Good ideas may generate only a singular insight, even quite large and impactful ones. But truly great ideas can generate multiple insights over time, often arriving as deeper and more extensive appreciations and extensions of the initial insight. “Aha!” shifts to “Whoa!” as successively deeper insights unfold over time. 

Take away for you: Insight is the mechanism that turns information into transformation. Keys to getting insight include taking in new information, taking on new perspectives, and trying out new behaviors. What are you doing in each of these areas?

Take away for your Leadership: Simply giving people the answer robs them of the experience of having their own insight. It’s the “Give a man a fish vs Teach a man to fish” parable all over again. How are you helping your team increase their chances of having insights? What more can you do to help lead them up to the edge of it, but then pause to allow them to take the last steps on their own. How are you developing capacity in your teams vs just telling them what to do?

So again, I share these here because I firmly believe that helping my clients make finer distinctions in the world empowers them to make better decisions and take more effective actions. And perhaps more importantly, I believe that my primary role as a Coach is helping them experience the powerfully transforming impact of fresh insights into their own lives, narratives, and aspirational goals.  

Clarity from finer distinctions increases the frequency and impact of fresh insights, which then accelerate the pace of transformative growth and development.  

Tune in next Tuesday for another 2’fer sharing of distinctions and insights I’ve seen be powerfully helpful in my work and in my life.