Teri's building an aquarium at the moment, which means our kitchen table is currently a research station. What's striking is the fear. The forums are full of people testing their water four times a day, dosing chemical after chemical, terrified of nitrites they can't pronounce. Their fish keep dying anyway. Usually from the treatments.

The old hands do something different. They set up the conditions, the light, the plants, the filtration, the patience, and then they largely leave the tank alone. The water finds its balance because water does that, when you let it. One of them fixes a problem the chemical crowd would throw fifty pounds of product at by dropping in a vitamin C tablet.

I keep meeting the same two characters in business. The owner with the test kit, checking everything hourly, dosing the tank with initiatives, wondering why the fish look stressed. And now there's a new chemical on the shelf that everyone's pouring in by the litre, because everyone else is. It promises to fix the water. It mostly makes more of whatever was already in the tank.

The work I do is the other kind. Get the conditions right: who owns what, numbers the owner can see, a weekly rhythm that settles things. Then get out of the way and let the thing become what it was trying to become. It's less dramatic than dosing. The fish live.

Where have you seen this, in a business or anywhere else? Reply and tell me. The best story gets quoted next time, with your name or without it, your choice.

David
David Schofield · Purpose In Action