Functional Adaptive Developments (F.A.D's) and the MacGyver effect

I used to love watching the tv series MacGyver when I was younger. He was a master of adaptation and improvisation and could get out of any jam with a stick of chewing gum and a paper clip. Perhaps it was MacGyver that has inspired the generation of functionally adaptive leaders that run our businesses, governments, churches, hospitals, schools, and other institutions.

What is a functionally adaptive development? It's a term I've made up by sticking together two or more things that do not normally being together and making them work. These FADs are all the rage. Consider the last time you bought something of value. Did you ask if it was true? Did you ask if it was morally good? Or did you ask if it would work? For nearly anything you can buy in the world you can find a generic version slightly cheaper and if you really want to save money you can go online and find Pinterest and a dozen other sites on how to use things in ways they for which they were not initially created. Our MacGyver culture values functional ability above all else though... It doesn't matter if it was built for that purpose, it only matters if it works.

And it doesn't matter if it works for the long run. We care about the present moment. Will the paper clip last as long or have the same overall effect as the circuit board thing over the long haul? If someone were to shake the missile, would the paper clip hold? Probably not. But by then it won't be our problem, so we don't need to worry about it. This is what I would call a FAD Attitude.

FADs are not made to last. What do we need to do in order to create lasting solutions? We need to ask different questions. Along with the question "does it work?", ehich is an important question, we need to ask:

1. Is it good? Is it legal? Is it morally and ethically right?
2. Is it beautiful? Does it have aesthetic value?
3. Who or what will this decision affect and how?
4. How can I prevent this problem from reoccurring in the future?
5. What new problems might this decision create?

These are some questions that need to be asked of any decision, whether it is a improvised on-the-spot suggestion or a tried and true "we've always done it this way" decision. If you keep patching things with gum and paper clips long though the next generation may come to believe that's the way we've always done it. That is how temporary fixes become permanent traditions that blow up in our faces in the end.