The Two But Rule

CHAPTER 11Managing Your But

After walking through just a few short rounds of Momentum Thinking, you can see that it doesn't take much to find yourself up to your neck in buts. It's no wonder that we see so few cases of using the Two But Rule in the media, during meetings, or in the halls of government. There just isn't enough room, not enough time, and not enough patience. Even cases later in this book will have to leave a lot of buts on the cutting room floor to keep the page count short of the full Game of Thrones boxed-set edition.

Without help, our busy lives barely have time for an occasional game of 1But. It's understandable that society is developing an abhorrence to opposition. The no-buts policy might be an intellectual and innovative dead end, but it can be less annoying than a mob 1Butting each other to death.

That said, applying the Two But Rule can be fast, as we saw with Apollo 13. It can lead to fewer mistakes that would otherwise cost time and lead to disaster later, as we saw with Volkswagen. And there is a lot less friction involved in exploring issues when people know they can expect a second but after someone points out a problem with an idea.

Still, running five rounds of the 2Buts game can be exhausting mentally, especially for a team. And if you need to discuss or write down all the “But that won't work, BUT it would if…But that also won't work, BUT it would ifs…,” you're going to run out of room fast. We're going to need some help exercising our buts. ...