Map the steps

When you’re doing some new things with a team or project, it’s worth mapping out the steps so people get a sense of what’s going to happen.

This isn’t a table or list or spreadsheet - although they may hold some useful data about what needs to be done or supporting information that helps with decision making.

Sensemaking when things are unclear, unknown, uncertain or just new for people, requires us to do more than just write a few words, send a few emails or type a few messages.

All those words! Our brains are full already.

Just as a Google map shows us where we are and where we want to get to, we can use a map like that too. Include a few points like:

Here....

The path or steps to ...

There.

Add a few notes about what’s planned as you guide the team from one place... getting to that other place.

If you’ve got more of your team working remotely at the moment, don’t just rely on all the words or talking heads.

Show them a map they can keep referring back to ... later ... when they need to, when the words get lost and the talking heads are offline.

Swinging from uncertainty to certainty

We do it so many times a day.

Uncertainty about breakfast.

Certainty about breakfast.

Uncertainty about the bus.

Certainty about the bus.

Uncertainty about the meeting.

Certainty about the meeting.

Uncertainty about the decision.

Certainty about the decision.

We’re all just swinging from being sure about some stuff and unsure about other stuff. And the stuff changes. And the level of certainty and uncertainty can change too.

This is the U in VUCA. How are you going with it? How is your team going? Things are changing so you’ll be certain about some more stuff in a few minutes time. And some other stuff will become uncertain.

Notice the swing: go with the swing. Better than trying to keep everything still in certainty, expecting it to ‘switch’ to certainty and stay there. We’re going with it - oh look, more certainty approaching.

Could the discovery experience of travel, work at work

The promises and rewards of travel are many : exploration, discovery, insight, learning, life-changing experiences. We are invited to show up, not knowing much about a country or culture, encouraged to tour, learn, listen, sample, test and experience.

Could more leaders in more businesses encourage the joys of discovery at work, like travel does for us?

Are there fears that all that discovering will take/waste a lot of time?

That it won’t really deliver any benefits?

Or that it isn’t needed: at work we just do what we do, same as yesterday, last week or last year.

Newer ways of thinking and working include doing things like deliberate discovery. It’s invited, welcomed and expected. I’m not suggesting it switches to all, full-on discovery, 100% of the time. It’s not an all or nothing thing.

It’s about some. Allowing some time for discovery. Some budget. Some opportunity. Some guidance or coaching so that your team knows how to discover, explore and unearth.

Otherwise, one day you’ll wonder where all the good people went to, why they left. They’ll go where there are opportunities for a better ‘adventure’.

Could you do it in reverse

I collected the mail from my mailbox yesterday at 11am and saw the postal delivery worker, the ‘postie’, finishing delivering mail to other letterboxes.

Usually she delivers the mail to our area at about 3pm.

‘Hi!’ I said. ‘Hey you seem a bit earlier, a different time today?’

‘Yes', she said, 'I thought I’d do my round in reverse today; you know, keep it fresh.

She went on...'It’s easy to become a machine, doing the same thing, same way, same route, riding up streets the same direction, the same order and same views. But wow, this has really snapped me out of things today; I’ve had to think and not just go by habit.'

She delivered the mail and a great insight.

What’s the current way you do something? And how could you reverse it? Even a small part of it? Go try.

Creativity and novel thinking data suggests this helps us see new things, make new connections, make sense in other ways.

Most of all, it changes our locked-in perspective.

People won't commit if they don't know where they're going

We need big trust to go with someone and not know where they’re going.

'Trust me, it’s a great restaurant.'

‘Believe me, you’ll love this holiday location.’

We may think people will just follow us or they're at fault because they don’t 'engage or buy-in'. How do we lead so people will change with us as we launch something, try something new or zig when everyone else is zagging?

To reduce anxiety and uncertainty and build trust and understanding use sensemaking. We have some of it in our nature (how we make sense of things) but we can learn more so we become insight seekers and rapid sense makers in this world of complexity and uncertainty.

Do this:

1️⃣ Create a map of what’s possible, what the potential is

2️⃣ Talk through that map, share it with others

Like this:

In my recent Sensemaking skills workshop, a participant created a map about change in the educational sector she works in. She shared and talked through the map with the team. A topic that used to create resistance now had understanding, intrigue and curiosity.

✅Ace!

What do you have to convey:

- Your own thinking and ideas?

- A new product or service?

- A plan or vision for the future?