Finding Beauty in the Detour

I’m traveling home from a tournament in southern California with my son when Onstar redirects us an hour out of our path. After driving in a circle for 20 minutes or so, we finally call OnStar to see what was causing the detour. Learning they were actually helping us avoid a two-hour delay caused by an overturned truck, we decide to follow the new directions provided. About 30 minutes into the detour, I wake up to a beautiful image of mountains in the Mojave Desert, perfectly pictured outside my window. It looked like an artist had freshly painted it. I wanted to reach out and touch the mountains. I imagined myself sitting at the top looking across the plain thinking “we would have missed this beautiful landscape had we not taken the detour.” As I sat atop of the mountain, in my mind, I thought of all of the possibilities and opportunities that await us.

Life is full of detours. Sometimes it’s the distraction needed to invoke a fresh perspective or way of thinking about a particular topic or issue. The challenge is not to avoid the detour or rush to a speedy fix, but to take the time to scan the landscape, actively take in the moment and find the value and beauty in the detour.

As leaders we should plan and look for the occasional detour. It’s our opportunity to help our teams view a project or problem through a different lens; as a small piece of a mosaic- finely crafted artwork. Each pen/brush stroke is vitally important and thought through adding to the overall uniqueness and tone of the piece. Even the smallest stray line seen by the eye can change the composition or balance of the picture. For that reason, an artist continuously steps back and looks at the piece from many different angles to obtain a full picture and refines. That is what we, as leaders, should be doing – helping our teams continuously reflect, connect our individual efforts with the bigger and refine as needed to create a mosaic – a collective masterpiece that all can own and be proud of. When we do this, the focus moves to the outcome and not the steps and obstacles needed to achieve it. That is the value and beauty of the detour.