Edward Munk’s Sheep of Destiny

My son who is 18 will probably have 20 different jobs and 5 different careers. The world he will live in won’t progress like the one I’ve grown up in.  It wont stay the same. I think back to when he was 4 and he drew a picture of an orange dinosaur. As a dad, I said, “great dinosaur”. Then for some strange reason I also said “the only thing is…dinosaurs are not orange”. Why on earth did I say that? He was 4. Was I trying to exert my authority? Could not knowing the colour of dinosaurs be a health hazard (like not noticing fires are hot?)  All I do know is he had the best reply…”who knows!”. Of course, he was right. Unencumbered by preconceptions and known rules – especially ones based on creatures that I’d never seen that died millions of years ago – he could let his thinking be free. He takes his A levels this year. Success is results. It is targets. To succeed you need to learn to the test. You can be successful in school and at work if you can learn what to think.  We could of course  also teach them how to think.  However, society and business as been preferring “what to think” over “how to think” for some time.  Systems, structures, businesses, schools, pupils have targets…grade targets, school league targets, quarterly company targets, banking bonus target.  You may find some time to just think differently….but the pressure from targets and the time and effort that they squeeze out of people often make them seem like a luxury that is easily  sacrificed to continue pursuing what the system demands on time.

As recession bites, businesses fail, people lose jobs and what was certain is anything but. If you are a newspaper or a journalist… is the model or your career going to stay the same? If you area a record company, a musician or artist is the model or the skill set going to stay the same?  If you are a bank or a banker…. a country or a politician… an airline or a pilot… a mobile operator or a phone maker…is the model going to stay the same?

I have a sheep on my laptop bag. It is Edward Munk’s Sheep of Destiny. “He smiles because he sees your future and oh how HAPPY that future be!”. Apparently, there are 3 types of sheep. 90% of sheep are follower sheep. They go where the other sheep go in the field. 9% of sheep are leader sheep. They decide where the sheep graze in the field and move them all from place to place. Then there are 1% weird sheep. They neither follow, or feel compelled to move from place to place organising everyone. They see the field from their perspective. In the normal sheep world weird sheep seem to have no real role. And yet, when crisis hits and the field is full of snow or a fox enters – it is the weird sheep who know how to escape through the dry stone walls . Of course, so can all the other sheep escape – but the leaders would have to give up leading the sheep the way they always have and the followers show their own mind. There were no doubt weird sheep working in the music, airline, banking and every other industry – but they didn’t like them as they didn’t fit. Many of them were seen as not fitting in and many left. Weird sheep don’t see things the same – that’s what makes them special. That’s why every company should have some and learn to listen to what they say at least some of the time. At schools and home we can make more sheep weird. You teach them how to think vs what and go wow an orange dinosaur…what made you think of that. If the world is guaranteed to not work out the way we expect don’t we want people who can deal with it…or perhaps enjoy shaping something different.