When you are leading in uncertainty or navigating a transition, it’s common to describe the experience as driving through fog. Jim Collins uses this metaphor in his recent book to describe the experience after people — even very accomplished people — live through a ‘cliff’ moment in their lives. The transition or crisis is usually followed by an extended period of fogginess.
In a culture that tends to value clarity, decisiveness and strong forward momentum, we can experience some degree of self-consciousness or shame while in that fog too. It can leave us with a feeling of not keeping up.
During my recent time in southern Africa, we spent many hours on gravel roads. It gave me a new appreciation for the expression of being “left in their dust,” as that is literally what happened. Whenever another car would approach, from the front or the rear, our driver would prepare for the inevitable dust cloud. He’d slow right down, let the car go by, turn off his high beams and wait until the dust cleared enough to see well enough to proceed safely.
There’s an instructive metaphor in there for us. When the dust clouds build, we need to slow our pace and avoid trying to look too far ahead. And it helps not to worry too much about not keeping up with the car that just passed us. Those people may not be heading where we want to go anyway.
