Overwhelm that comes from the future

It’s not even here yet and we’re already thinking about it!

The workshop that’s next week. 
The presentation we have to finish. 
The job interview we’re preparing for. 
The proposal for the client. 
The book to read. 

It’s all in the future ... and our thinking about ‘that which is yet to come’ adds so much to our feelings of overload and overwhelm. 

Running scenarios, preparing options and imagining plan As, Bs and Cs : it all takes time, attention and energy. 

Check to see if you’ve started working on something before you’ve, you know... actually started working on it!

Don’t dismiss all that thinking as ‘nothing’ or ‘just’ thinking. It’s adding to our cognitive overload and our sense of overwhelm. 

No wonder we feel the burden of too much going on!

Catch yourself - and your team - if you’re heading off on a thinking tangent or going deep into a wombat hole that may take even more effort to get out of. 

Notice. 

Noticing where our attention and focus is - in the past, the present or the future - is a powerful behaviour. 

It’s a practical thing to do to reduce the feels when ‘it’s all too much’. 

The world needs us to think and work differently

Here’s a resource full of ideas, inspiration and practical wisdom on how to do that. 

It’s all coming together in the full colour book ‘Better Ways of Thinking and Working’. 

I’ve collected, selected and edited many of the ideas I’ve shared that are relevant for these times of change, evolution and revolution. 

Now they’re coming together in the one place. 

Order via my website or shop 

‘BETTER WAYS OF THINKING & WORKING: How changing the way you do things, changes what you can do’. 

Engagement myth : ‘Once you lose them you lose them’.

It’s not true. 

We lose focus and attention all the time. As leaders, speakers or trainers, we can’t hold people’s engagement all of the time. 

So yes, we will ‘lose them.’ We all drift away. But it doesn’t mean they are forever ‘lost’.  

Attention ebbs and flows. We can’t give 100% attention, 100% of the time. 

The task becomes: how do you get them back... and when they come back, how do you catch them up with what has been happening - whether they’re ‘gone’ for 15 seconds or 15 minutes?

The work then is to firstly DESIGN for engagement. 

And then to invite, welcome and DELIVER for reengagement. And repeated reengagement, because our attention lapses. 

Rather than the control freak in us expecting or demanding 100% attention, work to earn engagement and to hold it, understanding that it will leave at times. 

And then work to always encourage and welcome re-engagement, whenever it comes. 

Ease is an accelerator

How easy do you make things? 
And what do they need you to make easier?

The weekly status meeting is often a summary of “here’s what going on”.  

Rather than going around the table - or the screen - hearing an update about what’s going on, why not find out what they need made easier? 

Leaders who take on the role of a facilitator - today’s leaders of ease - are focused on making things easier for their team. 

That means helping to identify and remove barriers, blocks and obstacles. 

Get to it! Find out where the sticking points are and help free them up. Release the build up, move the blockage out of there and make things easier. 

This is some of the best work a leader can do. It can be one of the most impactful, supportive and memorable things about a leader. 

It reduces friction and frustration and allows the team to build up momentum, speed and flow. 

Go now ... go make something easier. 

Build engagement slowly

Starting with a bang in a meeting may seem like the way to get people’s attention - but the reverse can also be true. As we join the next meeting in our diary, we bring with us a hangover from the previous one.

The previous meeting could have been overwhelming with too much information, or frustrating in how decisions weren’t made. It could have been time wasting or unclear or .... highly entertaining, interactive and uplifting!

Every meeting leaves us with a kind of hangover that we need to unload or process. The guide then for facilitating or leading better meetings is to build engagement s-l-o-w-l-y. Slow and steady style.

That means:

> Not putting people on the spot at the start, or ever

> Not making them look foolish, and

> Not making them wrong.

It’s easy to put people off or get them offside in meetings - online or otherwise Ramp or build engagement with participants slowly, steadily ... even if you’re in a hurry to make things happen. There is plenty going on for people. Lead meeting speed safely.