Lucy Kidd

I have just been reading one of my favourite childhood books ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’ by Norton Juster to my 5 year old son. It’s a story of a boy called Milo who goes on a journey through a mysterious tollbooth into the magical Kingdom of Wisdom.

Along the way Milo encounters many characters, all of whom who hold a valuable lesson for him. One of these is the Terrible Trivium, demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort and monster of habit. The Trivium attempts to stall Milo and his companions from their mission to rescue the Princesses Rhyme and Reason, by asking them to ‘spare a little of their time and help with a few small jobs’. One of these small jobs is to move a pile of sand – grain by grain – with a pair of tweezers.

Milo and his friends set about their jobs with great enthusiasm but after a while realise they are putting in hours and hours of effort without making any real progress.

Milo finally plucks up the courage to ask why they are bothering doing these ‘unimportant things’ and the Terrible Trivium replies:

“Think of all the trouble it saves. If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you’ll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won’t have time. For there’s always something to keep you from what you really should be doing…..If you stay here, you’ll never have to think again and with a little practice, you can become a monster of habit too.”

The Terrible Trivium’s response is a powerful reminder for me of how easy it is to become distracted, to lose focus on what really matters and to expend loads of energy doing things and keeping busy without moving forward at all on the things that really matter. This is especially tempting when faced with a leadership challenge that requires me to try something different and to practice bringing something new!

Leadership Nudge:

· What are the piles of sand that are diverting your focus and energy from where you really want to go?

· How could you pay more attention to the important and sometimes difficult things that will help you get there?

By Lucy Kidd

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