When the River Stopped, the Work Didn't
What Lewis and Clark's Great Falls Portage Teaches About Disciplined Progress
Imagine spending more than a year traveling up the Missouri River, only to discover that the river you have been following is suddenly no longer going to take you where you need to go.
That was the situation facing Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in June 1805. Their expedition, commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory and seek a practical route to the Pacific Ocean, had reached what is now central Montana. For more than a year, the Missouri River had been their highway westward. Now, a series of enormous waterfalls stood directly in their path.
The expedition could not navigate the falls. There was no alternative river route around them, and turning back was hardly an attractive option. If the Corps of Discovery intended to continue west, its members would have to carry their boats, supplies, and equipment overland, then put everything back into the Missouri above the falls.
What followed was nearly a month of some of the most physically demanding work of the entire two-year-and-four-month expedition.
The $290 Soup Decision That Paid Off Two Years Later
Some of the best leadership decisions are made long before anyone realizes they are necessary. They rarely generate excitement, and their benefits may not become apparent for months or even years. Yet when circumstances deteriorate, those earlier decisions can make the difference between having options and having none.
The Smartest Leader Isn't Always the Smartest Person in the Room
Leadership is often associated with having answers. People bring problems to the leader. The leader decides, sets direction and owns the outcome. It’s easy to slide from there into assuming the person with the most authority should also have the most knowledge.
Prepare to Be Wrong
In their book Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, Chip and Dan Heath identify four common problems that interfere with good decision-making. One of them is overconfidence about the future.
Their answer is the final part of their WRAP decision-making process: Prepare to Be Wrong. Lewis and Clark found that to be true on the banks of the Missouri River in 1804.