I have an early memory of working on a vocabulary treasure chest. I think I was in Miss Peterson’s second grade class. I had to choose from a list of words to fill in this sentence: “The man walked ____ across the tightrope.” Having no idea what any of the options meant, I chose “nonchalantly.” (The answer was “gingerly,” for those wondering). Weird that I still remember.
Sometimes the best way to tackle a problem is to come at it sideways rather than head on.
Four recent examples have highlighted the usefulness of this reminder for me:
If you’re feeling a bit stuck today, consider multiple ways you or your group could tackle your challenge indirectly. Instead of skirting the issue, you may find you are effectively solving it instead.
Continue reading “When Results Aren’t Your Goal”As I write this, we’ve had about a week to take 2022 for a test drive. My verdict thus far is mixed, and it depends very much on where I fix my gaze. If I think about what I hoped week one would involve (i.e. nine of us in Barcelona and Valencia), it hasn’t been great as we weren’t there. If I let my Twitter feed shape my impressions, it’s starting as one of my worst years ever. And I’ve thrown my back out for the first time in almost a decade. But here’s the thing: I wrecked my back building an awesome snowman with my granddaughter on one of the most magical winter days I can remember. January marks the start of a fresh new season, and even though it’s a challenging one this year, I still have choices about my attitude toward it. For this first entry of 2022, my “wiser decision faster” is to prevent and resist the funk I could easily fall into next week, rather than needing to drag myself out of it later!
Continue reading “Nourishment”“Well, at least we have enough toilet paper!”
A classic line from a client this week as we considered how to muster the energy to cope with another hard chapter in pandemic life.
We were actually talking about “Emotional Range” within her Adaptability Quotient assessment at the time. Emotional Range is defined as the extent to which people experience emotions because of situations in their environment. At one end of that range are people who are “reactive” – they have stronger stress responses in the face of the unexpected and are easily overwhelmed by uncertainty. Folks at the “collected” end of the range tend to be calm under pressure and in control of their reactions. They can also be [perceived to be] less sensitive when others are struggling.
Continue reading “Collected Under Pressure”I have long been an advocate for an abundance mindset, rather than operating out of a sense of scarcity. This reflects a way of being in the world, not primarily access to material resources (although I suspect having the latter makes the former much easier).
So it still surprises me when scarcity-based thinking creeps into my own ways of working and/or drives the behaviour of my collaborators. It’s sneaky and it’s everywhere. And so refreshing when replaced by its opposite.
Continue reading “Subjective Abundance”