The Anchor Point
Ideas that hold up under load
Hey Reader
Every so often, on a flight to the next job, a Sudoku puzzle falls into place in half of the time it should take. One answer opens the next, and the next, until the board is finished before I have properly settled into my seat.
I play the puzzle two ways. The methodical way goes number by number: ones, then twos, then threes, placing every option before looking for the answer. It is slow to start. Most of the board gets built before anything gets solved. Then the last third goes fast, because by then I have the whole picture.
The other way is to scan for whatever is sitting in plain sight and take it. No placeholders, no working in order. One answer opens the next, and if the run keeps going, the whole thing can finish in half the normal time.
That is where it starts to feel like luck. It's not. It only works because I am scanning fast and grabbing the obvious answer the second I see it. The moment those answers dry up, the run stops, and I have to drop back into the slow, methodical pass to get moving again.
A Search and Rescue callout runs on the same two gears. In the first minutes, you scan hard for whatever is obvious and act on it, because a fast start buys you time and builds momentum. From the outside, that can look like a lucky read of the scene. Underneath it, it is a trained habit: take the obvious win the second it shows up.
Then the picture stops handing you easy answers, and the job changes. That's when you drop into the slow gear. Stop guessing. Gather what you actually know. Work it through properly before you commit to the next move.
Knowing which gear a moment calls for, and swapping the second it changes, is one of the leadership prompts I teach. Luck is a habit. It just does not look like one from the outside.
I walk through it, and the rest of the prompts I use on rescue jobs in my Leadership Prompts webinar.
[Save your seat for 16 October →]
Grant
