Keep your hand on the rock

Today I began taking an online video course for work. It's called "Creating A Great Customer Experience" (or something like that) and is led by Blair McHaney. He uses a lot of Ron Kaufman material in it, and I actually found it quite inspiring just from watching the first two sessions.

What caught my eye (or ear) in the first session was this story he told - and I couldn't quite make out who he credited it to - but it was about some climbers who found a rock in their path. It goes something like this...

There was a man climbing up a mountain. He came to a spot where a large rock blocked his path. On either side of the rock was a steep drop, so there was no way to go around. So he set about to try to move the giant stone out of the way.

Pretty soon another climber arrived at the same point. He asked the first man what he was doing, to which he replied that he needed to move the rock out of the way in order to move onward. So the two of them set about trying to move the rock.

Eventually there was quite a group gathered in the spot - all having their path blocked. As yet another climber arrived on the scene he asked some of the people at the back what was going on. Several people stated they were having a great time visiting with other climbers, sharing stories, food and drink, and it was somewhat of a party. To which one of the people up front yelled back, "No we're not! We're trying to move this rock out of the way!!"

The point is... if we don't have our hand on the rock, it's easy to lose sight of what we're supposed to be doing.

I thought this a good story for reminding us to keep our focus. It is certainly applicable where I work, as it's easy to forget why we do what we do each day.

I actually thought the story was going to go another way though. I thought the point was going to be that people got so preoccupied with moving the rock, that they forgot they were climbing a mountain. Either which way... it's good to be reminded that we need to keep the main thing the main thing.

So... what's the rock you need to keep your hand on? Don't let yourself get distracted. Too much.