If you don’t think you're creative...

While we hear that creativity is even more important in today’s crazy world, it’s a big shift for some of us to believe ourselves to be creative... or capable of creative thinking and inventive work.

I’m not here to debate your level of creativity so could we just look at this another way? With another word?

Let’s go for INGENUITY. It’s not creativity on steroids or more or bigger.

It’s different.

Creativity is about being generative, inventive, it's the making.

Ingenuity is about being resourceful and being able to use the skills you have, the resources on hand to fix something, solve something or find a clever way of working it out.

When we put our smarts to work on solving a challenge, this is being resourceful, using what we have, accessing whatever we can. It’s a sweeter, more helpful and practical mindset than thinking we have to be creative, running the tiresome loop that is the ‘I’m not creative’/‘oh yes you are’ game. That does little to give us more resourceful ways of thinking and working!

Think more about using what’s already available to you (that’s ingenuity), using whatever resources you can access, and worry less about whether you’re being creative enough. 

7 hours of meetings and no time for work

This is a reality, stuck in meetings each day, trying to do the work, but being locked in back-to-back meetings giving you no time to actually do the work.

Is this your world too?

While we need meetings to collaborate, communicate, co-design and co-create, most organisations still haven’t worked out how to support their leaders to run meetings in ways that are more productive, creative, effective and collaborative.

These are the four outcomes good sensemaking + facilitation delivers in meetings:

🌕 productive

🌕 creative

🌕 effective

🌕 collaborative.

At your next meeting, ask or enquire: What sensemaking techniques are we using today, to help us understand each other and help us make these important decisions?

If you get blank faces as a response, or ’the PowerPoint deck’, or ‘Karen is taking minutes’ … these all get the ’no/wrong’ buzzer from me. Bzzzzt!

With 7 hours of meetings, the meetings aren’t working. They’re not making sense; likely going around in circles; and lacking focus, leadership and outcomes.

You need just one sensemaker in the room to completely change how a meeting works.

Are you the one? 

The problem with a project roadmap

Many project teams sweat over the project roadmap, the “what’s going to happen and when” of the project. It’s important. It keeps focus and shares intentions and expectations.

And this is all good.

But there could be a problem ... a disconnect of sorts. It’s right there in the name of it, roadmap.

Too often roadmaps are presented as boxes, tables full of words, cells from spreadsheets or complicated-looking calendars.

Tables, cells and columns may be great for actually working on the project, but for many people who don’t work in this way, they’re not so great for engaging and updating on the project story.

When you're dealing with future states or concepts, you've got to go for something that's as realistic as possible. People are in pain from information overload, bandwidth and capacity they don’t have, plus the fear and uncertainty of the unknown stuff that's ahead.

They may not even understand your table.

While you may love your spreadsheet, it may be saying so little to so many.

Road. Map. Keep tables for the work to be done and get better at sensemaking via map making.

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.

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?