“Mad Major” John Boyd, quoted above*, is an undeclared American hero. 

Personally I am not a fan - war is not a arena that engages my respect – and I am not fool enough to ignore valuable insights into human behaviour from whence ever they arise.

Boyd declared this idea to his phenomenally successful American fighter pilots, and the idea is also a central premise within Alexander’s evolutionary theory. It’s all carefully laid out in by F.M. in his laboriously written first section of CCCI, but it’s way more interesting to consider Boyd’s take on the subject.

What puzzled Boyd is why the Americans defeated the Koreans with a 10:1 ratio in a plane that was clearly inferior. He eventually figured out why.

Boyd’s theories went on to influence the development of the F-15 and F-16 fighter plans – dominant now for 40 years - and his key innovation mimics Alexander’s declaration that change requires decisions that go against the habit of life. 

When the world’s pace of change is accelerating on a daily basis, our means of making decisions is critical to our survival. Decision-making is totally based on our mind-set - the world we choose to see – and can only deliver results consistent with our projections.

But what if we have never faced this situation? 

Such is the lot of an American fighter pilot, many miles above the South Sea, his life literally at stake.

What if the circumstances and decisions you need to make about your Alexander practise are unique, unprecedented and life critical? 

This may not seem relevant to you, until you wonder why you don’t gather many students, why you spend your life struggling to make ends meet, why you keep repeating the same patterns of boom and bust…

Alexander declared that people only read journals that agree with their opinions, only seek friends with similar philosophies. In doing this, they steadily reinforce what they already know, thereby remaining in a cocoon– as he put it – of “subconscious guidance and control”. The past projecting itself into your future. 

No change, just years and years of the same.

There’s nothing conscious there, no-one’s awake.

While I have no wish to hang out with Nazi-loving thugs with tattoos on their head, I do understand that my orientation to life is THE limiting factor in my ability to make smart decisions. It is also the key obstacle I face in getting teachers to understand the value of ATSuccess – my system for helping you grow your Alexander practise. 

It’s our biological default to be resistant to new information.

This was Boyd’s key insight – it was why the Americans were able to shoot down the superior Russian MiG-15s plans in Korea at a ratio of 10:1. They simply got better information, and therefore made decisions a few nano-seconds faster than the Korean pilots they murdered.

Observation is the Engine of Conscious Evolution

How do you get better information?

You stop being fascinated by what you know and think, and you start listening to others. Personally, I struggle a lot with this one. However, I do see that my biggest mistake – and the mistake made by all failed businesses - is that I am more interested in what I am thinking, than in listening to what you want. Coaching others has been a great way for me to engineer a reversal of this tendency.

Dialling down my inner dialogue - and giving my senses due influence in shaping my perceptions - is one of my daily practises.

Information from the environment is known to be critical to brain development in a child – deprive a child of that, the result can be a monster. Have you stopped that process? Many people have. Once school, university and few years in a new profession or job are done – education is over for the vast majority of human beings. The rot sets in, the mind becomes fixed, decisions are based on old information.

Boyd urged a design criteria that emphasised giving pilots access to fresh information, then he trained their minds to be open to that information. He declared:

“The name of the game is not to become a dinosaur. If you’re in an equilibrium condition, you’re dead… The underlying message is simple: there is no way out… That’s the way it is, guys.”

Millions of dollars, and superior technology, could not overcome the simple speed of a human brain in making decisions when:

1. It is open to new information – and willing and able to access it.

2. Is taught to respond uniquely to what is happening in any critical moment.

Applications To Your Alexander Practise

How much information do you have about your students?

In ATSuccess, one of the first things you are asked to do is sit down and make a list of every student who has ever crossed your doorway. Then you look for patterns: age, gender, interests, motivations, connections, locations. 

This is information that was always there, always present, but your mind is so busy believing itself that you have no space to see the unseen. It is not that you don’t see: you don't see that you don’t see.

ATSuccess is not about business strategies or smart ways to market – although there’s that too – it is the systematic application of Alexander’s evolutionary ideas to the art of building a successful practise. Your problem is never about how you are marketing, it is about how you are thinking.

Change that, change your mind set, and everything begins to flow.

You gather information. You listen, you observe – you come into contact with that which is already around you, and soon insights and actions which had never occurred to you start to become obvious. 

If you are sick of being the same in your practise, sign up for ATSuccess’ free seminar below, and start applying Alexander's insights into the way you run your AT biz.

*Quotes and information are extracted from Jeff Sutherland’s outstanding book Scrum:The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time.