WTF
On my business’s mailing list, I talked a little about the new CEO of a fancy design consultancy who walked around with two notebooks. One was a plain black notebook for day-to-day notes; the other was bright red and said WTF on the front cover. I loved this idea so much that I made a WTF notebook of my own, and provided a framework for processing WTF moments:
- What is happening? Describe it as neutrally as possible, like one of those reporters who spent a decade abetting fascism by avoiding value judgments.
- Why is it causing you to WTF? Now move into your value judgment. This is the therapy part, the integrity part, the part when you say that something is obviously bad, will result in active harm, etc.
- What’s preferable, instead? Think about what a better course of action would be. What did you expect to see happen? Keep it factual here; your opinions are for the next question.
- What would the impact of that be? If everything you just described in #3 became reality, what do you think would happen?
In short:
- Report what’s happening
- Feel into what’s happening
- Report what should happen
- Feel into why
Separating intellect from emotion here helps you act more clearly, sit in the present moment, and see things for what they really are.
I find myself doing this all the time in the consultancy – increasingly often, given the ongoing situation – and figured it was worth polishing up & offering to everyone. I made a downloadable PDF for you to use here.
I firmly believe that identifying & responding to WTF moments is a way of resisting the current decline. Perhaps you agree. If you’re interested, I might make notebooks of my own that begin with a few pages on usage and conclude with a few dozen WTF templates, similar to the aforelinked.
Is there economic interest over here for something like that? Fine if not, but if there is I’d love a fun project.