Are we on the same page yet

Getting on the same page is a collaborative and strategic need we have and yet it can take such an effort for us to get there.

Perhaps some transparency might help. That word 'transparency' ... meaning 'easy to be seen'.

How transparent is your thinking? How well can you see what you're thinking so you can communicate it, share it and transfer it to others?

It can take us so long to get our heads around what we’re thinking, let alone understand what others are thinking! In the meantime, thoughts seem opaque, cloudy and thick - rather than transparent, clear and understandable.

And there's no need to over simplify, just to understand. We can tend to resort to lazy methods like lists and clumps of unsorted information, expecting others to do the connecting of themes, the joining of dots and the revealing of patterns.

But oh, that keeps us on different pages.

We can do better.

Today’s cray-cray world of information, ideas, happenings and data needs us to be able to:

🎫 get to grips with information quickly,

🎫 get ourselves (as a group) on the same page, and then

🎫 decide ... so we can get on with it. This is sensemaking.

No, please... not the ‘save as’ strategy

Opening a document from last year, you ’save as’ to update a few things. Save as another name, change the date. Job done.

We’ve all done it. But no, wait.

’Save as’ when working with a document is an option. You don’t have to do it. You can start anew.

In times of crazy change and uncertainty, don’t be a ’save as’ person, leader or a 'save as' organisation. To replicate last year doesn't make (or take) enough of a shift for the change required of us today.

Otherwise the response (and then the solution) won't even be incrementally different ... let alone exponentially different!

A not-for-profit agency planning their strategy day saved last year’s agenda, sent it through and said, ’This is what we want to do.’

’No. No you don’t,’ I said. Not the same agenda, same venue, the same board, same structure and same presentations. Probably the same ideas and insights too!

Longevity, consistency and continuity are important. But automatic replication ... no.

To exist in the new, you will need to do things differently. Allow the project, team and business to gather new insights, so that sensemaking is current, recent ... and informed from the now.

Do you know how you think

Not the 'glass half empty/glass half full' kind of thinking, but how flexible, adaptable and malleable our thinking might be.

Much of what we do is so ruled by habit, routine and bias, that to be able to have 'meta cognition' - thinking about how we think - can be out of reach. We need to learn, to be taught it.

So can we 'get above' our thinking so we know what it is.

That could be mighty helpful:

- in a conflict or argument

- in the depths of a dull meeting

- in a brand new job role

- in a complex decision making process.

Our thinking patterns can open us up to adopt or try new ways, and our thinking can also close us down, snapped shut, blocked and rigid. As much as we might hope we're flexible, adaptable and malleable, are we really?

Could we think some more about how we think?

Let's aim to spend more time 'up there' where we are aware of what we are thinking. Hmmmmm 🤔 

‘How did you get started?' could be the wrong question

When we’re starting a new venture, launching something or seeking advice, we may ask the default question, ‘How did you get started?’

It’s the wrong question. Well yes, ok, it’s a nice question and we hear someone’s story and learn interesting things about them. But... What if we asked a better question or series of questions? (Have we even thought about what those questions could be?)

What further, better and more helpful insights might be uncovered with more revealing questions? The starting or origin activity is nowhere near as insightful as the 1000s of decisions and actions that precede it or follow it. The origin activity could be as a result of luck, networks, opportunity, invitations or a happy collision. Great, nice to know. But what has happened since then?

What mindset, choices, decisions and experiments did this person experience, conduct, endure or achieve? This is where the insight is. In those 1000s of decisions and actions.

When you’re interviewing, podcasting, hosting a panel discussion, being the MC, introducing someone or having a conversation, go for something more than ‘How did you get started?’ There's so much more there.

Making sense of the strategy

It is one thing to get the leadership team, board and executive together to plan and identify and prepare a strategy.

Then comes the work of trying to embed the strategy - or in other words... make people follow it.

Getting people to buy in to new directions, new ideas and changes in strategy requires sense making. We can’t just pump out some ‘comms and marketing’ in an effort to ‘sell’ the message, create the urgency and ‘cascade it’ down throughout the organisation. These too often vanilla flavored communications have motherhood statements, cliches and corny ‘Ra Ra’ slogans. (I know; I used to write them in my previous roles in leadership communications!)

But they're tired and dated in our world of clever internet memes that burst forth every day!

As you plan for next year and decide when and how your senior leaders are getting together to do the all-important strategic work, be sure to include in that planning how you’ll make sense of it for people.

Sensemaking Your Strategy is a thing. Don’t leave it to cliched comms and marketing.

Put a sensemaking filter over the strategy so it makes sense to the people you expect to bring it to life.