The Garden - A Lightning Process Allegory...
Imagine that you have a lovely front garden. It would be the envy of the neighbourhood, except weeds grow in it. No matter what you do or what you use, the weeds still keep growing.
You go to different shops and talk to different people and buy
different products. Some weed killers help, but no weed killers
get rid of all the weeds. You get to the point where you believe
there is no weed killer that can rid you of your weeds.
However, one day you hear about this amazing weed killer and quite
a few people are raving on about it. You think to yourself "Will
it work on my weeds? - my weeds have got brown heads with red spots
and nobody else has got weeds with brown heads and red spots".
You have definitely got weeds different from anyone else.
You ask about the new weedkiller, and you soon find out that it
is much more expensive than any other weed killer on the market.
So what are you going to do? Is this weed killer worth investigating?
You have already got to the point where you believe there aren't
any weed killers that can kill your weeds - you've tried almost
everything and heard about everything else - and yet here is a brand
new weed killer on the market.
Will you say to yourself "I absolutely know that no weed killer
can kill my weeds - I have tried them all, or I've heard everything."
or will you say something like...
"But loads of people are raving on about it - could it be?..."
You decide to check out some of the people who are raving on about
it. Some of these people have similar weeds to each other and some
are totally different. In all these peoples cases all of the weeds
have started dying on the first day However you say to yourself
"none of the weeds are as bad as mine" or you say to yourself
"My weeds are so different"
You now have a choice
Will you decide to not go any further?
Or will you decide that it is expensive but you will use it as a last resort?
You find out that this weed killer is in powder form and needs
mixing with water, however the powder to water ratio mix needs to
be exact otherwise it will not work. The weed killer needs spraying
on with a special canister which has buttons on it.
Amazing Results!
At first the canister is awkward to hold and the buttons take a bit of getting used to - but you use it a few times on the first day. At the end of the first day - lo and behold! all of the weeds are already shrivelling up and dying.
So you do it more on the second and third days. You mix up the
powder and water perfectly and you have really got the hang of this
awkward canister with its buttons. Now there is nothing left of
these weeds - but some new ones may come back tomorrow.
What would you do now?
What will you do for the next few months and years with this weed killer? If it worked for you for the first few days, would you continue using it? If you stopped using it after the first week, or if you don't get the powder and water mix right, you would rightly expect more weeds to appear. What if you were told that if you used it enough times the weeds will never come back?
"Troubleshooting"
What if one of your neighbours said "The weed killer didn't work after 6 weeks" What would you immediately think?
Would you think "Have they got the powder-water mix right?" or "Are they using the canister properly?" If they told you that it worked the first few days but it's not working now - you would be very suspicious that they were doing something wrong wouldn't you? |