Sand Pile Effect

Sand Pile Effect

The idea is not to get
buried up.  

Rarely in our world do we have catastrophic or "1 root cause" crises.  Generally, those gray-sky days are a compilation of items that build up over time until they become impactful...for better or worse.  The idea is to figure out the contributing factors in a system (work, home, family, etc) and how to manage the sand piling process so that it doesn't become overwhelming and resort to catastrophic devolution.  In essence, we're trying to pay close attention to our inputs so that we can manage the system toward the desired outputs or end states.  

When we do a "post mortem" analysis or After Action Review (AAR) in the first responder world, we're looking at three things - what we intended to do, what we actually did, and any things we'd change next time.  This constant introspection into our systems helps hone the team over time and build stronger capabilities to respond in the future.  Very rarely in an incident that goes "pear-shaped" do we find that it was a single moment in time that led to the collapse...but rather, a combination of items or a firing chain, that if disrupted anywhere along the way would have probably avoided the entire bad ending.  For example, after a vehicle crash on the way back from a fire, the "5 Why's" root cause analysis looked something like this CRASH <-- DRIVER FATIGUE <--CREW REST PROCEDURES <--DEMOB PROCESS CHECKLIST NOT FOLLOWED <--CULTURE OF "HURRY IT UP."  In this example, not to excuse the driver's culpability...but in digging deeper, it became clear that we could have another one easily enough without some changes further up the "food chain" so to speak. 

Thanks to Chief Jayson Coil for the graphic

During a fire service leadership conference, our instructor who had 9 2/3 fingers from a mowing accident, and a great story talked about how this sand pile in his marriage.  In his story, he talked about what we could do to learn from his mistakes...in this case, how he woke up twenty years into marriage and realized, "he couldn't stand how she chewed her gum" - coupled with a few colorful adjectives.  Long story short, over the years, the sand grains had piled up, over and over...until there was an avalanche...this one called divorce.  

You've got to have a 
way to lower the pile.

In the first responder and military world, we talk a lot about critical incident stress management (CISM) as a way to help cope with the things that we've got to see and do when we respond has lots of family lessons we can learn from.  In CISM, one instructor described your overall chronic as something like a five-gallon bucket...through life, we pour in a spoonful/cup full/bucket of water when things happen.  If we don't have responsible/healthy ways to dump some of that water periodically, it eventually spills over the top.  I had a friend who had been a first responder for decades...seeing, hearing, and doing some crazy things over the years.  One day, she hit a bird in her car and lost it...pull-to-the-side-of-the-road-sobbing lost it.  Essentially, her bucket had filled up and spilled over.  

On a more positive example, Steve Harvey talks about the "10 more times" rule where you do something that makes $10 bucks...do it "10 more times" and you have $100.  Do that "10 more times" and you've got $1,000...do that "10 more times."  Hire some people and do that "ten more times."  The idea or principle here is a winner...have habits and small items that you stack in order to create powerful changes or outcomes.  You've seen powerful examples of folks who have grown businesses or wealth steadily over time and "have made it."  You also see others who rocket to success (think lottery winner or professional athlete) only to come crashing down financially a short time later.  The point here is, as we pour on grains of sand (good or bad grains), we have to do so strategically and intentionally.  

When we do it right, the
view is amazing!

You can do similar things in your own life.  Two obvious ones come to mind - calendar and budget.  From a schedule standpoint, we look at those little things that "ooch" in over time and contribute to a "too full" set of commitments...many of which are good things, but we don't prune (or say "no") as much as we tend to add things in.  Similarly, from a budget perspective, "get-rich-quick" tends to "over-run our base" and we get topple conditions.  Slow and steady, or at least thoughtful and proactive wins the race here (having a budget, long-term goals, intentional saving/investing targets, etc).    

Just keep
climbing

As a family, hopefully, you can take some of the principles from this post to apply to your own life...none of us want to describe our faith, family, marriage, finances, etc as an "avalanche of a disaster."  Many of us accidentally or subtly ooch toward that end of the spectrum over time...but we don't have to.  We can pay close attention to the things we're bringing into our lives and how we do life so that we can live our best lives.  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• Pick out a few things where you notice the sand pile effect taking shape in your life...assign an action that you're going to do in each part of life.  
• 1 - ___________________ 
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• What is something in your life you can 10x?  This year?  In the next ten years?  How are you going to do it?
• Go do one thing this evening that helps you dump out a little bit of your stress in a healthy way. 
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action) as it relates to sand piles in your life.  

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- Sand Pile Effect in Finance