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But I Have No Time …

 

“But I have no time,” is something I hear myself and my clients often say in relation to expressed desires about what we’d rather be doing. What I have learned from my 30-day blogging challenge is that by not prioritizing our creativity and making time for it, we just drift through our weeks, and one day jumbles into the next.

When we make time, however, things come together, they fall into place, we complete puzzles. And, according to Amabile and Kramer of The Progress Principle, engagement relates to our ability to see progress everyday.

For people who work on complex, long term projects with lots of moving pieces, doing something tangible every day that nurtures you and your creativity is not a nice to have, it’s a need to have.

Moving Past I Can’t Do This

For those readers who may have been counting, today is day 30 of my 30-day challenge to blog everyday. While I am planning to write much more about what I learned, today I am reflecting on the interesting connection between time and creativity.

A lot of days I struggled to blog. I was too busy with “real work”, tired and uninspired. I said on many days, “I can’t do this.” Ordinarily I would have stopped there and waited for another day.

But the challenge to blog everyday got me pushing through the confusion, anxiety and insecurity that I have nothing to say and am not capable of drawing anything. While praying might be too strong a word, being truly open and receptive to inspiration is something I hope to remember moving forward.

That, and pushing through when it seems like I can’t.

Go First

 

When it comes to building or rebuilding trust, there comes a point when someone needs to have the courage to go first, let down their guard and defense mechanisms and be vulnerable. Revealing what is REALLY happening for us creates the opening for trust to be built.

We often get asked “why should I go first?” Because if you don’t, your world becomes smaller and smaller and the one who suffers is you.

Silence Is Not A Problem To Solve

 

Learning to manage anxiety in the presence of silence is another insight from the work of Weisbord and Janoff. As they suggest, “We are mindful that each time we break the silence, we deprive someone of a chance to make a valuable observation.” Waiting even 10 seconds will seem like an eternity, but it allows people to experience whatever is happening and come up with insights about what’s next.

State The Obvious

 

I am a big fan of Weisbord and Janoff, creators of Future Search, and learned much about facilitation when I took their training. Their new book Lead More, Control Less applies their years of experience to leadership, and offers great insights.

One of their concepts is how to handle one’s anxiety when leading meetings. Often we try to rush to solution or tell people what to think. Stating the obvious signals you’ve heard people and actually eases your own anxiety. It also eases anxiety for others. State the obvious and pause. In my experience someone will come up with the next step for the meeting.

Letting Go Of The Right Way

   I have had the honour of working with many talented leaders who are so people oriented that they drive themselves crazy trying to ensure people are happy. These leaders often have to make tough decisions, though, and it’s not possible for everyone to be happy all the time.

Even though intellectually I think most of these leaders know this, they still keep thinking that if they had done something different, people would be happy.

They won’t be – there is no one right way. That’s the reality of work and life – there is pain at times. Helping everyone accept this might just start to ease people’s suffering.

What Leaders Should Do More Often

 

Today (Friday, October 23, 2015) is Global Champagne Day so there’s no better day to pause, reflect, and celebrate. Here’s to whatever you and your team have created, accomplished, figured out or contributed to this past week. Cheers!

Who’s In Your Network?

   I’ve written about the importance of having cheerleaders in your life, especially when you are trying something new and/or taking risks. 

But we also need to step back and analyze who’s in our network more broadly in order that we don’t get blindsided by circumstances and perspectives we hadn’t considered.

Who do you interact with most and/or consult with around projects? Are they all like you? Or is your network diverse?

What it Takes to Say Yes

A common coaching question is “what would it take to say yes to [fill in the blank]? In my particular case, it was saying yes to a book.  I have wanted to write a book since I became a high school English teacher at 24. I thought it would be a novel, and then as the years wore on and I changed careers many times, I thought it would be something non-fiction, probably around leadership or teams. I have come up with many book titles and even drawn up outlines for books but have never quite got there until now.

So what did it take for me to say yes to a book? A few rather interesting discoveries, thanks to the conversations with my brilliant book coach, Danielle Pope, my equally as brilliant husband, Dave Whittington and my equally as brilliant friend, Claire Abbott:

1. That the book was writing me, not the other way around.  When I started the book, I had a vague idea about what I was going to say, but mainly the idea just wouldn’t go away. I needed to give it some time and energy and learn about the book by writing it.

2. As an adult educator, I think and am energized by developing and facilitating learning. So the first draft of my book was actually an e-learning course, followed by a one day workshop. That was a major “ah-ha” for me and fundamentally shifted my energy about writing.

3. Related to the above, that a book could start small (a 7 day e-learning course) and evolve into a full length book.

4. That writing a book is different from any other type of work I do and I couldn’t do it at my desk! I was too distracted by “real work” and couldn’t focus. I actually had to go to another environment to turn the e-learning course into the first draft of a book.

5. That finding my voice for the book meant overcoming several inner demons related to the last time I wrote something substantial, my PhD dissertation.

6. That I had to give myself permission to write the first draft as if no one else would ever read it. Until I made that discovery, I edited almost everything I wrote or stared at a blank page.

7. That I cannot write in dribs and drabs as recommended by lots of people. I could not get up early and write a few hours a day. I needed to delve into the book and make it my sole focus for a period of time.

8. And the most challenging discovery of all … I had to say no to paid work. I set aside weeks in my calendar and then would get calls to do work and would take the work. The hardest thing I have ever done is prioritize the book. I had to tell myself that writing a book was as important as my “real work” and actually invest time and money (as I went away to The Haven on Gabriola Island, a great place to write by the way.) I realized that saying no was an absolutely critical part of getting this book written, and while this was the biggest no, there were others.

And so, whatever your dream might be, I encourage you to find a few folks who will continue to ask “What would it take to say yes to  ….?”

Oh and I almost forgot … the book is called How to Forgive your Boss and should be published this fall.  Contact me or watch this space for how you can get your copy!

 

 

Innovation and Tradition - The Genius of the AND From Tradition to Innovation – The Grand Challenge facing many large organizations

Dave Whittington, December 17, 2014

I was making a presentation and facilitating a conversation about innovation last week in Vancouver. The final part of my presentation was about the organizational context in which innovators need to operate and the challenges faced in many large organizations. During the ensuing conversation one participant observed that we perhaps needed to better understand how to make a business case for innovation. That got me thinking, and hence this blog.

I’m going to simplify things to make my case, and I know that real life is always more complex, but I think some of the ideas here might have value all the same. The normal route to a business case for innovation would go something like this. List what is wrong with the current state, and paint a vivid picture of the advantages to be gained by being innovative. On the face of it this makes a lot of sense. When you look at established models for leading change, such as John Kotter’s seven steps, we see the need to clearly state what is wrong with the current situation and communicate a vision of where we should be going.

There’s a downside to this approach, and I’m going borrow heavily from Barry Johnson’s work on Polarity Management to explain why. Let’s start by assuming that Tradition and Innovation are two sides of a polarity. So in any large organization there will be fans of tradition and fans of Innovation and they compete with each other for attention. There will be zealots on either side, but reasonable people would have to accept that there are positives and negatives on both sides. The first step in managing this polarity is to map the positives and negatives for either side.

Now we can see where the normal business case fits. It’s a clear call for a move from bottom left (the downside of tradition) to top right (the upside of innovation). The problem with this straightforward call to action is that it only acknowledges half of the issues and has the effect of

further polarizing the situation with each camp becoming more firmly entrenched in their beliefs that “the other side” just doesn’t “get it”.

Why innovators need to embrace tradition

The way out of this is simple, but somewhat counter intuitive, and not a part of any model for leading change that I’ve ever seen. We first need to accept that there are positives on both sides. There are also negatives on both sides. If we are to have any chance of bringing on board the tradition bearers in the organization, we have to acknowledge the legitimacy of their perspective. We have to change the conversation from a left vs. right argument, to a top vs. bottom dialogue, because we can all (except for some of the extremists perhaps) appreciate the value of the positives on both sides and acknowledge the potential negatives of both too.

The business case goes something like this. “There are some real positives to the traditions we’ve built up in this organization and we do not want to lose them. We also acknowledge that there are potential pitfalls if a push to being more innovative isn’t well thought through. However, right now, we need innovate in some critical areas because our current way of doing things is not serving us as well as it has done in the past.”

You see, instead of simply talking about the down side of bottom left and up side of top right, we’ve acknowledged the whole system. We’ve also done this in a very particular order that involves acknowledging the position of the tradition bearers first, and making the case for innovation second. There’s a basic rule of communication that says that people are more likely to listen after they first know that they have been heard.

This shift to valuing both the positives of innovation and the positives of tradition is a great example of moving away from either-or thinking and as Jim Collins clearly stated in Built to Last, “embracing the genius of the ‘and’”. More recently, this capacity to reconcile what look like oppositional ideals was recognized as a critical skill for organizational leaders by Roger Martin in The Opposable Mind. This cognitive skill is also a key component of great innovators. According to Dyer and Gregersen, Associational Thinking is a key cognitive skill in the Innovator’s DNA.

To summarize, if we are to make an effective case for more innovation in the large organizations we work in, we have to embrace the genius of the ‘and’, practice associational thinking, and acknowledge the value of the traditional.

How to encourage creativity and innovation In the last few years I’ve been seeing a pattern emerge in the strategic objectives of organizations I work with. This focus on innovation and creativity is not just a bandwagon that’s being jumped on. I believe this is an intuitive and direct response to the trend towards volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (the VUCA world) that we’re all living in.

Turning the strategic goal of innovation into reality is the struggle. I think the problem stems from the fact that innovation is a cultural phenomenon and not something that can be easily dictated.

If the organization you work in has innovation and/or creativity in its strategic goals, here are five things you can do to encourage innovation and creativity and start building the organizational culture you need:

1. Develop it, at every level. Not only does investment in staff development give people the tools they need to be creative, it also sends a message that says the organization is prepared to invest in a new of doing things. It’s really important that the development opportunities are embraced by every level of the organization. There are lots of options here, from a visit to Stanford’s d.school to local, and more affordable, creativity workshops.

2. Demonstrate it, from the top down, by showing commitment to the ideas above. If an organization can find really creative ways to celebrate, train, reward and make time for innovation, then they’ll be in great shape for making it a cultural norm. Walking the talk is the most powerful way that senior leadership influence organizational culture. Innovation and creativity are as much to do with culture as they are to do with strategy.

3. Reward it, quite simply, by making it a part of your performance review framework.4. Make space for it, in even the busiest schedules. There are stories going around of how

some organizations allow their employees a half day a week to work on anything they like. This might seem outrageous; to give away 10% seems crazy. However, if you consider the value that you get from 90% of an engaged workforce versus 100% of a disengaged workforce, I know which I’d prefer, and I get the added benefit of all those creative ideas from the 10%.

5. Celebrate it, especially when it fails. The end of the 20th century and early 21st century has been a time a time to tighten belts and batten down the hatches. We’ve generally become quite risk averse and failure is seen as unacceptable. Being innovative naturally involves trying things out, and not everything we try out is going to be successful. If we’re to be truly innovative we need to celebrate innovation wherever it occurs, and most importantly, we need to celebrate innovation for the sake of innovation, and not just for the successes it sometimes brings.

Any organization that’s really serious about innovation and creativity needs to pay attention to its culture as well as its strategy. The two need to work hand in hand. Org strategy supports and informs org culture. Org culture supports and informs org strategy.

Dave Whittington – June 2014

Thinking with your Hands

I remember when I was growing up, I had my fingers in everything. I couldn’t help myself. I always had to pick things up, and if I could, I’d take them apart. I remember my Mum pleading with me, “Look with your eyes and not with your fingers”. I was fortunate that I grew up with Lego, Meccano, the most amazing chemistry set, at least two soldering irons, etc. I built my own Scalextric cars, which were pretty good, but were never quite as fast as the best you could buy off the shelf, but that wasn’t the point.

I was also fortunate that I went to a “technical” school after passing the now infamous “11 plus” exam. The school had great labs and workshops, and I was further encouraged to think with my hands, but in a much less creative way. There was no crossover between the subjects. I even remember that “Art Metalwork” and “Engineering Metalwork” were taught by different staff in different workshops. At age 14 I wanted to study car maintenance (remember the Scalextric) … but it wasn’t an option for me as I was on the “academic track”. Slowly but surely I was encouraged to think less and less with my hands.

Now in my early 50s, I’m rediscovering how much fun it is to build stuff. There’s so much going on right now. I’m not sure who’s leading the charge, but the folks at IDEO have been enormously influential, as has Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk of 2006, which now has over 25 million views. Prototyping, playing and building are key concepts in the plethora of frameworks for innovation and creativity that are being published just now. It’s as if we’re coming out of the dark ages of creativity with a whole bunch of new tools to play with. It’s very exciting.

At a personal level, I have a Raspberry Pi that has opened up a whole new world of stuff to build. I once again own a soldering iron and I have more hand tools than will fit in their box. I’m

making stuff again, and my brain is energized. At a professional level, I’m doing some really interesting work with IDEO’s Human Centered Design (HCD) toolkit, and I’m finding inspiration in the increasing interest in workplace innovation. As a society, I’m hoping that we’re entering a renaissance for thinking with your hands. Sorry Mum, I just can’t help myself.

Join me on pixpired.com

For those of you who have been subscribing to our blog, a big THANK YOU. You may have noticed it has been some time since I blogged here and that’s because I have been creating a new site for all of the visuals. I will continue to blog daily, but now it will be done at pixpired.com (visually (pix) inspired (pired). Head on over to subscribe to the RSS feed, a daily email and download a free reflective leadership journal. Hope to see you there!

 

Developing Personal Resilience I recently noticed that this resource got lost in our web site’s latest reorganization. So here it is again …

This isn’t the only path to personal resilience, but these five practices provide a common-sense approach that is easy to understand and realistic to apply. Please note that because we deliver this presentation in a number of contexts and formats, what you see here may differ from what you experienced in the workshop you attended.

Link to presentation at prezi.com and the handout (one page word doc) that goes with the presentation.

Know Yourself

Get clear about your strengths, develop your emotional intelligence, live your values and confront your self-limiting beliefs.

Know your Strengths also from Gallup – Wellbeing Take a free Personal Values Assessment Understand your Emotional intelligence The Gremlin-Taming® Institute Extreme Self-Care by Sheryl Richardson

Set Clear Goals

We need really clear goals. This isn’t news: “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind”. Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4BC – 65AD). We need short term goals so that we can measure progress and we need long term goals so that we know which direction to head in.

What’s your long-term BHAG? What are your short-term SMART goals? And what’s on your stop doing list, to make space for the good stuff?

Big Hairy Audacious Goal SMART goals The Stop-Doing List

Lighten Up

Most of the truly successful people I have met seem to be having fun. They have a sense of humour, they don’t take themselves very seriously and they laugh a lot. It’s often difficult for us to find humour in the world around us, but we need to find it, and share it with others whenever we can.

Give yourself a break. Take time to connect with friends and family. Find ways to have fun at work. How can you maintain a positive attitude?

Fun Works Managing Stress at Work by Humor at Work a video by Michael Kerr Jessica’s “Daily Affirmation”

Persevere

Viktor Frankl makes it sound so easy – “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

We need to stick at it. We need to work on these practices continually, until they become a habit. Changing habits takes time and there is no instant fix. This is a lifelong exploration. We need to deliberately and consistently put effort into building resilience. This means scheduling time for ourselves to do the reflective work we need to do.

Emotional Equations by Chip Conley

Embrace Paradox and Uncertainty

Uncertainty is one of the biggest stressors for some people. The clever folks who study complexity say increases as the pace of change increases and the level of interconnectivity increases. Our work and our society are destined to become ever more complex and unpredictable.

Polarity Management Cynefin Relax It’s Only Uncertainty

The new normal In the last while, I have found myself saying, “when things get back to normal,” meaning when I can get back to doing business the way I used to (or was comfortable with). Well, I think I have known all along that’s a bit deluded and news of a triple dip recession only heightens my awareness that doing business right now requires huge amounts of courage, nerve, risk taking and creativity. This IS the new normal.

Asking stupid, insulting questions

I am a huge movie buff and really appreciate great talent, and so it is with utter bewilderment to me that reporters ask such insulting questions. Kudos to Jennifer Lawrence for handling herself with such authenticity and humour. We could all learn a few lessons from her!

Tell a different story The way we talk about our situations really does contribute to the outcome. What are your “favorite” stories and how do they help or hinder you?

Change your shoes

We can become entrenched in our attitudes and beliefs. Change viewpoints … assume you are one of your team members and watch your energy shift. If you are having difficulty with this one, find a pair of shoes that are quite different and walk around in them for a while. Symbolically this might help you shift your perspective and energy and communicate differently with your team members.

Today’s blog is based on the 4 of diamonds, a communications teamwork tip from our Teamwork Explorer.

Go on a story walk I was inspired to read about Hubspot’s CEO, Brian Halligan, who takes employees on off site “story walks” to build trust and organizational culture.

Enjoy every moment