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Through the Looking Glass
Key Business and Life Lessons from Lewis
Carroll Pommie Lutchman – CCMG Chairperson
February 2016
Lewis Carroll(27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898)
• Real name Charles Lutwidge
Dodgson
• Writer, Mathematician, Logician,
Anglican Deacon and Avid
Photographer
• “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
• “Through the Looking Glass”
• www.lewiscarroll.org
Lewis Carroll Facts
1. Migraines, and epilepsy, stammering, partial deafness, and
ADHD.
2. 11 books on mathematics, and 12 works of literary fiction.
3. Could write 20 words a minute, a page of 150 words in seven and
a half minutes, and 12 pages in two and a half hours.
4. Wrote over 98,000 letters in his lifetime (sometimes upwards of
2,000 times in one year)
5. Financially inept.
Lewis Carroll Facts
6. The Cheshire cat was inspired by cheese molds from
the Cheshire county in England
7. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been translated
into more than 70 languages.
8. There’s a white rabbit and Alice holding a flamingo
immortalized in stained glass in the Christ Church
College at Oxford, where Carroll spent most of his life.
9. Only traveled abroad was in 1867 on a trip to Russia,
stopping in Poland, Germany, Belgium, and France.
The Lessons
Do go down the Rabbit Hole
“It was much pleasanter
at home,' thought poor
Alice, 'when one wasn't
always growing larger
and smaller, and being
ordered about by mice
and rabbits. I almost wish
I hadn't gone down that
rabbit-hole—and yet—
and yet—it's rather
curious, you know, this
sort of life!”
Know Yourself
“'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'
'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'”
Accept advice from Unexpected
Places
“'One side will make you grow
taller, and the other side will
make you grow shorter.”
Believe in the Impossible
Alice laughed. 'There's no
use trying,' she said: 'one
can't believe impossible
things.'
'I daresay you haven't
had much practice,' said
the Queen. 'When I was
your age, I always did it
for half-an-hour a day.
Why, sometimes I've
believed as many as six
impossible things before
breakfast.
Always indulge in the whimsical
“"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!”
"Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle …"'
Communicate carefully with
others
“You should say what you
mean," the March Hare
went on.
"I do," Alice hastily replied.
"At least I mean what I
say.
That's the same thing you
know."
Stop doing things that get you nowhere
“'Now! Now!' cried the
Queen. 'Faster! Faster!'
It takes all the running
you can do, to keep in
the same place.” If you
want to get somewhere
else, you must run at
least twice as fast as
that!' The

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CCMG Awards 2016 - Through the Looking Glass - February 2016

  • 1. Through the Looking Glass Key Business and Life Lessons from Lewis Carroll Pommie Lutchman – CCMG Chairperson February 2016
  • 2. Lewis Carroll(27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898) • Real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson • Writer, Mathematician, Logician, Anglican Deacon and Avid Photographer • “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” • “Through the Looking Glass” • www.lewiscarroll.org
  • 3. Lewis Carroll Facts 1. Migraines, and epilepsy, stammering, partial deafness, and ADHD. 2. 11 books on mathematics, and 12 works of literary fiction. 3. Could write 20 words a minute, a page of 150 words in seven and a half minutes, and 12 pages in two and a half hours. 4. Wrote over 98,000 letters in his lifetime (sometimes upwards of 2,000 times in one year) 5. Financially inept.
  • 4. Lewis Carroll Facts 6. The Cheshire cat was inspired by cheese molds from the Cheshire county in England 7. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into more than 70 languages. 8. There’s a white rabbit and Alice holding a flamingo immortalized in stained glass in the Christ Church College at Oxford, where Carroll spent most of his life. 9. Only traveled abroad was in 1867 on a trip to Russia, stopping in Poland, Germany, Belgium, and France.
  • 6. Do go down the Rabbit Hole “It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when one wasn't always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole—and yet— and yet—it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life!”
  • 7. Know Yourself “'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' 'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. 'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'”
  • 8. Accept advice from Unexpected Places “'One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.”
  • 9. Believe in the Impossible Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said: 'one can't believe impossible things.' 'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
  • 10. Always indulge in the whimsical “"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you're at!” "Up above the world you fly, Like a tea-tray in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle …"'
  • 11. Communicate carefully with others “You should say what you mean," the March Hare went on. "I do," Alice hastily replied. "At least I mean what I say. That's the same thing you know."
  • 12. Stop doing things that get you nowhere “'Now! Now!' cried the Queen. 'Faster! Faster!' It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.” If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!' The

Editor's Notes

  1. 6. Carroll first told the story of Alice to the Liddell girls on July 4, 1862, while Independence Day was being celebrated across the pond. 7. The Cheshire cat was inspired by cheese molds from the Cheshire county in England, a dairy-rich area, where “grinning like a Cheshire cat” was a popular phrase, possibly because cats would have been so happy to live in a land of abundant dairy farms. Cheesemakers in the area molded the cheese with a cat’s grinning face, and sliced from the back, so that the cat would slowly disappear and the last part consumed was the head. Photo: Graeme Chuchard. Click to see a larger version 8. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into more than 70 languages. 9. There’s a white rabbit and Alice holding a flamingo immortalized in stained glass in the Christ Church College at Oxford, where Carroll spent most of his life. 10. Even after all the success of Alice, the only time Carroll traveled abroad was in 1867 on a trip to Russia. On the way back he made stops in Poland, Germany, Belgium, and France.
  2. The Takeaway: Sometimes business insights can be found in unexpected places. Alice in Wonderland is a beloved children's classic but it also has something to teach managers if Vermeulen is to be believed. The London-based strategy professor uses his blog to examine the concept of red queen effects. If you haven't had a chance to read Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass in awhile, the red queen is pictured as perpetually running yet getting no where: They were running hand in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could do to keep up with her: and still the Queen kept crying 'Faster! Faster!' but Alice felt she could not go faster, though she had not breath left to say so. The most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and the other things round them never changed their places at all: however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything... 'In our country,' said Alice, still panting a little, 'you'd generally get to somewhere else â€" if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing.' 'A slow sort of country!' said the Queen. 'Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!' The same concept applies in business. In today's competitive environment continual striving just keeps you on par with the competition. Getting ahead takes a truly heroic effort. This might be exhausting for managers, but Vermeulen points to research that suggests it does have benefits: Professor Bill Barnett, from Stanford, studied Red Queen effects among companies at length. He found that those exposed to ongoing competition and change improved considerably and became much stronger firms... in such a race, the weakest firms go bankrupt, leaving only the strongest competitors. However, it also stimulates firms to learn and adapt quickly. And if you're learning and adapting, and becoming a more agile competitor as a result of it, it prompts your competitors to do the same (or die). It's a bit like an arms race-- But one that consumers, and society as a whole, benefit from. However, the red queen effect isn't an unalloyed good. It also presents dangers. Companies can be so intent on not losing ground that the fail to see that they, and their competitors, are running hard in the wrong direction. Vermeulen calls this a success trap: "firms have been running in a particular direction only to find out that the world has just changed and some other corner of the market has become more attractive. This triggers the entry of newcomers, while the original leaders struggle to catch up." The Question: What industries have gotten caught out by innovative competitors while engaged in a red queen race?
  3. 1. Do go down the rabbit hole
Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland begins on a riverbank, with Alice’s older sister reading to her. Clearly bored by the story, Alice wonders “what is the use of a book without pictures or conversation?” She spots a white rabbit running by, eventually diving into a hole. Alice follows her impulses and dives into the hole along with the rabbit, falling down into another realm. While she falls, she philosophizes about the other side of the earth, imagines a conversation with her cat Dinah and grabs a jar of marmalade from one of the shelves surrounding her. She lands unharmed and embarks on the rest of her adventure. Alice doesn’t play by the conventional rules of a little girl during the 1800s; she’s up for whatever comes her way and is willing to take a chance on the unexpected with brilliant results.
  4. 2. Know yourself
After Alice falls down the rabbit hole, she grows to a large size and frightens the white rabbit. Uncertain of her identity, she asks herself, “Who in the world am I?” As quirky as the rest of the tale's characters are, they’re all sure of themselves and know who they are. “We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad,” says the Cheshire Cat. As the narrative of the story proves, you’re better off knowing who you are and having your own opinions. In the woods, Alice frequently relies on other characters to direct her during her early adventures, and is consistently challenged. In the final chapter, she criticizes and fights with the Queen. Only when she recognises who she is, and comes into her own, is she set free.
  5. 3. Advice can come from the most unexpected places
Who would have thought that a caterpillar with an attitude, smoking a hookah, would know all the answers? At one point during the story, the caterpillar challenges Alice's identity, briskly asking, “Who are you?” Alice, upset with her temporary small size laments her woes to the creature who only says, “You'll get used to it in time,” while continuing to smoke his hookah. He’s adamant that he won't help Alice or aid her in her distress, but near the end of their conversation he utters, “One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter,” suggesting that Alice eat the mushroom near her. It’s this bit of advice that gets Alice on to the next stage of her adventure.
  6. 4. Believe in the impossible
There were many times that Alice could have given up on her adventures due to all the challenges she faces: growing larger and getting stuck in a house, becoming too small, getting dazed and confused in the deep woods. In Carroll’s sequel, Through the Looking Glass, the older Alice gets a lesson in believing in the impossible. The Queen tells her, “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” As Alice continues on her way, she adopts the Queen’s point of view. What is life without impossible hopes and dreams, anyway?
  7. 5. Always indulge in the whimsical
The talking flowers, the Mad Hatter, dancing lobsters and Humpty Dumpty didn’t scare Alice away – in fact, rather the opposite; the white rabbit, who she spotted wearing a waistcoat, checking his watch and speaking English enchanted her more than the book her sister was reading to her. Alice isn’t opposed to the whimsical and decides many times to indulge in drinks, cakes and tea parties with complete (sometimes mad) strangers. Who wouldn’t want to party with that magical cast of characters?
  8. Is saying what you mean and meaning what you say the same thing? I'm pretty sure it's not. You should think about this: Do you really say what you mean? Do you really mean what you say? Communication, for me, is tough. I don't always say what I mean either because I am afraid to or because I'm not sure exactly what I mean. I spend a lot of time thinking, but not all that much time thinking before I speak. Not surprisingly, my lacking communication abilities often lead to confusion and problems. I've learned (and am still learning more and more every day) that it's much better to take some time to figure out what you mean rather than saying things that may be the opposite of, or not even related to, what you mean to say. And, on the other hand, it's important to mean what you say. When you tell someone something, mean it. Don't just speak to speak. It can be hard to communicate with others. In some ways, we're all in our own little worlds and what makes sense to us doesn't always make sense to others. However, I've found that if you take the time to really think about what you want to say and if you really mean the words that come out of your mouth, things in life go a lot more smoothly.
  9. What do you do that keeps you in the same place? Do you want your life to change but you keep doing the same things over and over again? I know his happens to me. Like many people, I find myself complaining about things that I chose to do. I will make choices and then I will be unhappy with them afterward. Listen to the Queen. The Queen is right. Sometimes -- okay, often -- it feels easier to keep doing what you've been doing because it's comfortable. We can get so set in our ways, in rationalizing our behavior to make it seem okay, but we're actually making things a lot harder on ourselves. Just think about your life for a minute. Are you doing things that are making it harder on you? Are you staying in situations that make you unhappy because it seems easier than getting out of them? Are you putting yourself in positions where you have to compromise yourself because it seems easier?  Think about how much time and effort and mental energy that takes just to stay where you are, to keep doing what you're doing. It seems like it would be hard to leave or change, but, really, it's harder to stay the same. Remember what the Queen said and remember this: don't ever, ever settle for less than what you deserve in life.