Is Wordle the Next Great Leadership Tool?

I wake up every morning before the sun comes up, feed the dogs, make some coffee, and then spend time on myself - emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. I spend time reading, writing, and reflecting as well as attempting to keep my mind sharp with Wordle and Sudoku. 
 
I was working on a recent Wordle puzzle and found myself stuck on a word, which if you do this puzzle, you are aware that this can be common. I do follow a strategy of always starting with the same word. After that, depending upon which letters are correct, I do have some additional trigger words that I use to help me narrow down the options. 
 
When you create a process that works, you then look for other ways to use this effective process. We do this at work, sports and in life. You hear the phrase, “Trust the Process”, which means if you create a process, and with preparation and proper execution, the results will follow. Which is true for the most part, but what happens when your process has a built-in bias?
 
Biases and perspectives are part of life. Whether it is the Mental Models you have formed over the years or the process you create to navigate Wordl, you need to recognize that how you see patterns, has an inherent bias that needs to be explored and understood.
 
As I worked through the morning Wordle, I ended up with the pattern shown in the image, - - i - e, immediately I see a long “i” sound because of the “e” on the end. I run through a few words such as crime, prize, and twine before settling on “slide” as my guess. It reveals an “L” which only adds more confusion. It can’t be “glide” because it doesn’t have a “D”. I was stuck. If you have played Wordle, you find yourself making up words in your head, sounding them out to see if by some chance it is an obscure word of which only the truest of Jeopardy champions would be aware.
 
So, you take a step back and gather your thoughts. You ask yourself what you are missing. If you recognize that you are stuck in a pattern such as the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon when you buy a yellow car and then somehow you suddenly notice yellow cars everywhere! You open your mind to a new perspective. What if it isn’t a long “i” sound? You change your pronunciation, your perspective, and suddenly “olive” jumps to mind, and the puzzle is solved.
 
If it is so easy to miss a word in a simple game, how many times are you missing the truth and reality in your relationships with people? How many times has your bias impacted a project at work? Negatively impact a play on the court? We are built upon our biases that we have experienced over a lifetime, but our strength comes when we can identify and overcome those biases that leads to our growth Beyond Today.

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