The Ant Trap

Like every other kid, I was always fascinated about how animals going by their day to day. Hanging out at a local park with my sister at the age of 7, we used to collect moss, build little houses for the ants, put a piece of aged raisin or bit-off biscuit around it . Then, we sit, wait, and observe how the ants acknowledge this afternoon tea house right near their commute.

We watched the group of them started to crawl towards the moss house, surround the sweets. They would crawl around there for hours. Like they’ve got sent a spell. My sister and I would leave the park feeling satisfied, like we’ve successfully commanded a group of ants to do exactly what we want them to do. And they obeyed. It’s quite a new feeling as a kid gaining a new set of power and pride.

Fast forward years later, someone shared a video and it completely blew my mind about the behaviour of “ants”. In the video, someone took a pen, drew a circle around a crawling ant, and just like that, suddenly, the ant obeyed to the spell, only crawl within the circle. 🤯

I get you asking:

Well Jac, What does this ant story have to do with Career Growth?

A lot actually …

Imagine someone goes to work, gets briefed what to do, they do the job within the brief. And that’s all there is, nothing more. Like the ants crawling within the circle drawn for them.

A closer to home example for the designers here:

PM asked: Build a new feature (✍️draws the circle)

Designer: Builds the feature, and that’s it. (🐜 plays within the circle)
(even when the project goal shifted slightly beyond the original ask, they were still stuck at the “original feature build”

The question worth asking is:

What might have gotten them into this situation of just…doing?

Wake up, go on with their day, sit back and wait to be assigned the task, do the task and clocks off.

Nothing wrong with that, until the same pattern goes by days, weeks, months and years.

They find themselves within the trap they’ve drawn for themselves, and by that point, it’s extremely challenging to leap forward and upwards.

They’ve built the comfort zone to enable that to happen. The problem solving muscles and critical thinking ability had weakened, no longer built for the ever changing industry landscape.

A high performing operator is able to make the unlikely connections to the impact of this one job to multiple connections beyond what they do. They find the gaps within the initial circle, crawl beyond the drawn lines, and see beyond their work through multiple layers.

Beyond what was told about the feature, they are able to connect this task with other parts of the product within their Team,

They are able to connect what they do with how it impacts other products within the org.

They are able to draw the connections and patterns towards how the industry trend and movement impacts the decision they make with this one single feature.

Behaviour precedes belief, change your behavior and your thinking will start to follow, not the other way around.

Proactively step into the “new” is the opportunity to expand the growth of your behaviour and agile problem solving ability.

James Clear phrased it perfectly in his best selling book Atomic Habits -

“We don’t rise to the level of our goals, we shrink to the level of our systems.”

In order to do that, these behaviour traits are required:

1. Agency

2. Velocity

3. Pattern recognition

4. Curiosity

Agency - the willingness to identify opportunities, and proactively go explore them.

☝🏽 Agency is driven by “Curiosity”

Pattern Recognition - The ability to acknowledge patterns and impact within the team, beyond the product, collected amongst trends and industry. A thing happened once, the brain collects it, and is able to bring it up where relevant to make the unobvious connection. AI can’t do that for you.

☝🏽 Driven by observant, analytical and critical thinking skills

Velocity - Able to quickly draw the hypothesis on: When to do what (timing), How to do it (knowledge), What does good look like (standard), How to do it well (breakdown into actions)

☝🏽 Velocity excels with confidence, and it’s driven by mastery experience, craft, knowledge, working with people that inspire you to rise above yesterday - Everyday!

Curiosity - Proactively lean towards the unknown. Question what’s outside of the ‘designated remit’, push beyond roles and descriptions with measure.

☝🏽 None of these would exist - if you don’t have the passion behind what you do.

Passion drives everything forward.

There’s an everyday-ness to excellence.

And if you currently feel like you’re operating within the Ant Trap - whether it’s within the project you’ve assigned, team, company, marriage, friendship, the culture, the environment around you.

Just know that, almost everyone is operating within some sort of hypothetical ‘boundaries’ like the circle drawn for the ant.

And congratulations, if you are observant enough to acknowledge it - you’ve ticked the awareness step. ✔️

Next, things will get a little harder, you’d need to work out some muscles to push beyond the circle you’re in. By seeing, to draw a new circle, perhaps a second circle, and finally gained the confidence to keep pushing.

At that stage, it’s a constant uphill climb. But once you get to the next circle, it’s like the feeling of hiking 2 hrs and standing on top of a mountain - “Wow, This is amazing”. That sense of achievement makes you want to do it again and again. That’s the rep! That’s the new habit and the sentiment loop to keep your gears sharp towards new heights.

Along the way you’re going to experience: Pain, Judgement, Shame, Breakthrough, Confidence in a mixed bag.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading.

Talk soon,

Jac ✌️

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