Bruce Lee, Water and Work

I’m a fan of Bruce Lee. There’s nothing I can really add to the legacy of Bruce Lee in this post. But this post isn’t really about adding anything to the greatness that was Bruce Lee, anyway. It’s about taking something away from it and applying that something to everyday work life.

It rained all day yesterday. I live on a hill, and we had some problems with runoff from a house above us, into our backyard that ended up stopping up against the neighbor’s house. This caused quite a bit of damage to their basement, so I spent the evening laying sandbags in an attempt to help them get the water to move away from their house.

This experience got my brain working on a concept that I had thought that I made up, but have evidently picked up along the way from the great Bruce Lee. That something is:

Being Like Water at Work

water is formless One of the great things about water is that it takes the form of whatever object holds it. As Bruce Lee said, “if you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.” There is a big need to fit into company culture in order to get things done and become effective. For example, if your company is relationship driven, then it will pay off to schedule meetings with individuals in their workspace to get to know them as people. I have found that a great deal of work gets done between people who like each other at work. Where the opposite is true for people who don’t necessarily like one another. There isn’t a particular formula to follow to be formless at work, just being a human being to other human beings is a great start.

water can not be pushed or pulled As much as we wanted to push the water away from our houses last night, we were not able to do it. We bought sandbags to guide it away from the houses, but that is all you can really hope to do with water… guide it. I enjoy this aspect of being like water at work because it affords me a level of autonomy to move forward with the organizational goals I am working to accomplish. I have a direction, and I am continually moving in that direction. As a side note, I’ve also noticed that when colleagues learn that you can not be pushed or pulled, less time gets wasted playing games around pushing and pulling you. This results in more work getting done.

water is powerful It only takes six inches of rapidly flowing water to knock a person down, and two feet of fast moving water to float a vehicle as big as a bus. Water can do these things when it moves quickly and is focused in a singular direction. Things don’t necessarily happen as fast as we’d like in large organizations, so the thought of speed is relative to where you work. But you get the point. The power of water lies in its relentless tenacity. It is always moving, and is able to wear down its targets.

Are You Like Water at Work?

I’m interested in understanding your take on being like water in the work place. As mentioned above, I try to be formless and focused in order to get things done in a timely matter. How about you? What is your work style? Is it anything like water? Please let me know in the comments below.