The Step Before the Step

Why it pays to pause before taking the obvious next step.
Bertold Raschkowski, [PLEASE INSERT DATE]

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

The saying is old, very old in fact: it goes back to the Tao Te Ching, attributed to Laozi (chapter 64). I admit I only looked that up after I had already chosen it as my opening. Really, I was just searching for a halfway fitting way to start this article.

Of Steps and Leaps

Steps are a funny thing. Most of the time we proceed step by step, because doing everything at once rarely works for bigger undertakings. Occasionally a leap succeeds, more by chance than by design, and shortens the way to the goal. Provided there is one. One that is clearly formulated and clearly in sight. And ideally one that grew on your own ground.

That is our warm-up done, and we are approaching the actual topic.

A Case from Practice

An experienced engineer in his mid-forties, 18 years with the same company, responsible for product management. Then: job cuts. In six months it is over. The separation comes with advance notice, not entirely unexpected, with plenty of lead time and a financial package for the professional fresh start, in technical terms: outplacement.

The Usual Route

The proven approach usually looks like this: skills analysis (which often gets short shrift in practice), labor market analysis, revising the application documents, possibly contacting recruiters, sending applications, interview training and, in the best case, an offer. Breathe out, it worked out once again.

There is fundamentally nothing wrong with that. The approach is appropriate if someone wants to return as safely as possible to a familiar environment and take on similar tasks there until retirement. The driving force behind it is called security.

That is exactly what the engineer had in mind, too: back into a job quickly, one that fills the fridge, pays for the children's shoes and secures the mortgage payments.

Good Questions and Good Questioning

The decisive question here is: Is this really it? Does it make you content? Is it the only way, straight and logical, but perhaps not the best?

It is deeply human to look for situations, and with them jobs, that feel safe and manageable. Familiar territory, in other words. More of the same, and every morning Groundhog Day.

Everything New? Maybe, Maybe Not

I am not claiming that everything has to be turned upside down in such a situation. But I do claim this: before you take the seemingly logical and obvious next step, it is worth taking a close look at whether this path is really the right one, or even the best. That is the decisive step before the next step.

Instead of lapsing into busyness, I can step back and pause. Consciously and actively. That is exactly what we did: no job profiles, no documents, no list of target companies.

Out We Go!

We arranged to meet for a walk in nature, to literally get things moving. When you move, outdoors and away from the familiar meeting room, room for thinking and acting often opens up by itself. That is not just anecdotal: studies show that walking measurably boosts creative, idea-rich thinking (Oppezzo and Schwartz 2014) and that time in nature can restore attention (Berman, Jonides and Kaplan 2008).

Along the way it becomes clear what slows you down and has slowed you down, as well as what drives and motivates you. Wishes, motives and values emerge as if they wanted to be seen at last.

Good questions, time to think, moments of silence, fresh air for the mind, a note here and there. Confusion. And then clarity.

Beyond Logic, Analysis and Methods

This step before the step is not determined by logic, analysis and methodology. For the analytical, matter-of-fact and highly structured engineer, who expected that same structure from me, this was a real challenge. He went along with it anyway. It was not easy, I gladly admit.

After this walk I heard nothing from him for quite a while. Further appointments had actually been planned, the ones for the documents and the interview training. But something was at work in him. The confusion had apparently turned into clarity, without any help from me.

Radio Silence, Then Speed

When he finally got back in touch, we polished the documents a little and later prepared the job interviews. Both went surprisingly fast, because the goal was clear. Not only in his head: heart and gut were in agreement, too.

Again some time passed. Then an email: "I got the job!"

The Moral of the Story

A few months later I gave a talk on "Making Better Decisions". Two surprise guests were in the audience: the engineer and his wife, who had traveled specially from the north.

From the north? The step before the step had set quite a lot in motion. Both had remembered their love of the sea, of water sports and of music. What at first looked like a crisis, they used for a consistent fresh start, professionally and personally. On a new path that was, at bottom, long familiar to them.

To keep it short: the outcome could of course just as well have been that the old path is the new one. And naturally there is no guarantee of success either way. But the odds are clearly better when drive and motivation come from within. This, too, is well researched: people who pursue goals that fit their own interests and values stay with them longer and achieve them more often (Sheldon and Elliot 1999).

That is why I make the case for the step before the step.

A one-off from my bag of stories? Not at all.

Sources

• Berman, M. G., Jonides, J. and Kaplan, S. (2008). The cognitive benefits of interacting with nature. Psychological Science, 19(12), 1207 to 1212.
• Laozi. Tao Te Ching, chapter 64.
• Oppezzo, M. and Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(4), 1142 to 1152.
• Sheldon, K. M. and Elliot, A. J. (1999). Goal striving, need satisfaction, and longitudinal well-being: The self-concordance model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(3), 482 to 497.

Bertold Raschkowski advises and supports companies, executives, teams, and individuals in freeing themselves from unnecessary clutter and bringing clarity to processes, decisions, and collaboration. His focus is on genuine, actionable solutions: systemic, pragmatic, without standard recipes, and centered on people rather than methods.

If you would like to examine your next professional or personal step in peace before you take it, we look forward to hearing from you.