Clever in constraint

Lockdowns, isolation and restrictions: they’ve been challenging and frustrating. But they’ve also been constraints. And we can make constraints work in our favour.

Many people have shown creativity and ingenuity as they ‘work around’ a constraint looking for a solution. These could be solutions for a problem or solutions for entertainment, distraction and release of emotion.

With limited resources, restricted time or constrained choices, our brain goes to work to find something for the situation. It’s evident from the funnies, tips, solutions and hacks people have shared over recent months.

There is such resourcefulness in us ... when we let it out.

If you think you’re not clever or creative enough ... try applying some constraints. When we have wide or seemingly unlimited choices, supplies or resources, ingenuity can seem harder to tap into.

To find more clever, put a limit or constraint on the situation. It will gently ply the ingenuity out of us as we seek a way to work within the boundaries.

Is there a better way of doing this

When we’re doing something in one way, do we wonder is there a better way? Rather than finding just any old way to do a task or activity, what would make it better... better for you and your situation?

And what is ‘better’ anyway? Better happens when something is more acceptable … to us or perhaps to our customers, clients, family, colleagues or community.

It might be better because:

It’s quicker

It’s less stressful

It’s easier

It’s smoother

It uses less energy

It’s more affordable

It takes less effort

It happens faster

It makes us happier

It protects us

It extends our life

It cares for others

It is kinder, more efficient… and on and on we can go.

It’s a personal thing to identify what would make something better for you. And when focus is directed towards better, we can make decisions, change things and choose ways that will work for us.

For the better. My next book is coming soon ... ‘Better ways of thinking and working: How changing the way you do things, changes what you can do’. 

Explore your ingenuity

When we’re faced with a problem or challenge, things may not work the way we’d like them to. We can become frustrated about that; we might complain, wish it were perfect, give up or... we can explore our ingenuity.

Ingenuity is our very own Department of Clever. Ingenuity is when we’re resourceful, using what we have. It’s how we fix or juggle things and make them work.

It could be how we make things fit in a cupboard or shelf, or how we prop up a computer screen on books or boxes so the camera is level with our eyes.

Ingenuity could be how we’re cleverly using space at home, or how we throw a few ingredients together for a kind of meal we’ve never made before.

Some of the best, most practical solutions come about when we explore our own resources of clever. And even if you don’t think you’re clever all the time, your ingenuity is still there ... waiting to go to work the next time you challenge it.

Try the ‘explore’ option next time a struggle or challenge is upon you and see what your mind delivers up to you in order to solve it. Ingenuity is a different resource to creativity, and it’s part of how we learn, survive and adapt in the world.

Clever you!

How you handle a problem

When you were most recently working on a problem, a conundrum or a tricky situation, how were you handling the problem? Were you talking about it? Say, sitting around a table with other people, just talking it through? Or were you ‘handling the problem’? Did you actually get your hands on the problem?

When we physically work with a problem, see, feel and imagine the pieces of it and move things around, we solve it quicker.

If we do, that means the l-o-n-g meetings we’re in (where we are usually just talking about the problem) will be finished sooner! We'll come up with better ideas and solutions and we generate a greater range of possibilities.

A product development team at a consumer goods business used cards with the key issues, challenges and obstacles written on them. They moved the cards around on the meeting table.

Seems simple, right? Engagement, participation and buy-in was boosted, and people more clearly understood what the details of the issue were all about.

Try not to just talk about the problem - but get your hands on it! You'll bring more people into the work to be done. 

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’.