Big Shoes Coaching and Consulting Inc.
A strike is traditionally considered a bad thing, but is it really? A strike is an opportunity. It’s not three strikes and you’re out, it’s three strikes before the next person’s turn.
Strike as defined by Big Shoe:
A finite number of opportunities to complete a given task.
Finite as defined by Big Shoe:
A real positive integer greater than 0 and less than infinity.
I live in an apartment complex and was recently on a walk with my dog and young child. My kid heard fun in the form of laughing and playing echoing from a large adjacent parking lot, largely obstructed from view by separating foliage. Kid asked me if we could go look, to which, I replied, “of course”. Between the trees emerged several families of couples and young children playing unfamiliar games together. Kid asked me if we could play, to which I replied, “of course”. Four men sat together on the pavement watching the women and children. I approached them with pup and kid in tow, asking if they mind if we joined. We all spoke enough common language to understand we were welcome with open arms. My dog, Thor, a golden retriever, is kind natured and generally friendly. He was oddly excited and comfortable around these “strangers”.
They taught us a fun game in which teams are divided in two, a stack of rocks placed in the middle. Pitchers on the offensive team get three attempts to throw a ball and knock over some, or all, of the stones. Once a rock falls from its stack after being contacted by the ball, it becomes dodge ball. The defensive team picks up the ball and must hit an offensive member, prior to the offensive team re-stacking the stones. If the offensive team can re-stack the rocks, prior to being tagged “out” with the ball, they are awarded a point. Each team gets one out, or one point, per half inning. Teams switch between offense and defense either when a point is scored or a player gets out. Number of innings per game is determined by relativity to the children’s bed and/or dinner times.
I don’t like bragging, but I’m pretty good at this game. The kids shout “uncle” and ask me to pitch early in the rotation because I usually hit the rocks. What I realized is that when I do hit the rocks in the first turn, the children don’t get to throw. They are excited that we win and score points, but In order for them to be provided the opportunity to improve and grow, I must strike out first.
Strikes vs Pillars
I’m going to use strikes as a synonym for opportunity but also as the corresponding X symbol. Pillars are traditionally cylindrical in nature, which when derived to a 2D shape, become a line. A line is a bridge, typically straight, connecting two static, or non-moving, points. Traditionally referred to as starting and ending points, a binary system. Binary systems are already dead since the end point is static and must be replaced by trinary systems. Creating the X symbol with two infinite 2D vectors (straight line extending “infinitely” in both directions) joined at a right angle allows for continued multidimensional continued growth, it's alive!
When creating mapping for problem solving, decision intersections are mapped with the X. There are multiple paths to get there and multiple choices from which to proceed. Once the “left or right” decision is made the branch, or now 1D remaining unused vector, stemming from the decision intersection is given an end point. This end point is its death, and its obituary is the reasoning for why this is not the right decision. Housing “why no” alongside “why yes” is critical to allowing the revisiting of previously made decisions.
This is the logic for why I will be breaking down problems into their “3 strikes”.