Stuffing, Cranberries and Great Decisions

For years stuffing and cranberries have shared my Thanksgiving plate. They've lived close to each other on the plate and some of the cranberry juice even trickled into the dressing, but they always remained independent food elements. This year, in a moment of pure inspiration, I made the decision to pour the cranberries over the top of the stuffing. It just made sense.

And it turns out that the combination was sublime! It took the dressing from great to gourmet. The sweet/tart flavors of the cranberries combined with the salty/savory flavors of the stuffing were incredible! You'd be hard pressed to find a better combination in a nice restaurant. I had to make sure everyone at our Thanksgiving table tried the combination. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense that these flavors would combine so well, but for years I never thought of it.

I wonder what caused me to make that decision. Where did the inspiration come from? Why, after years of sitting next to each other, did my mind finally make the connection that these two elements needed to be combined? Are the inspiration and the decision driven by nothing more than chance?

I'm very curious about the process that went in to making this decision. I recall listening to a discussion about why the Apple headquarters was designed with one restroom in the middle of the building. Steve Jobs indicated that he designed this intentionally in order to increase the "friction" between employees. The more often they passed one another and came in contact with each other, the more potential to share ideas that might spark a moment of genius.

I think my stuffing/cranberry decision might have been nothing more than years of "friction" finally resulting in that spark. I made the decision, but only because the environment was set up for that decision to occur. If I had kept my cranberries in a separate bowl all those years, the idea may never have hit me and the decision never been made.

It makes me wonder how else I need to design my environment to make great decisions. What do I need to change to make good financial decisions?