A discovery mindset : do you have it

One of the best meetings and workshops to design and lead is a discovery workshop. 

To simply and profoundly ‘find out’. 

Get people together - online is fine - and find out what they:
think
know
believe
hope
envisage
are prepared to do. 

There is much to discover and relearn about people, situations, problems and challenges. Things are changing. There may be new things to discover. 

What a shame it is to think we already know all there is to know, or to think we already have the best solutions. 

It’s one of my favourite and most impactful workshops to design and facilitate, because it so often delivers things we didn’t know!  

Because ... discovery! 

Who could you bring together to discover what the heck is going on, what they think, and what is possible? 

Call it a Discovery Workshop and get it going. 

Overwhelmed by the gap

When the gap is too big between where I am and where I’d like to be, it can seem insurmountable, uncrossable, impossible. 

It’s a huge step towards a big goal. After all, we’ve been told to ‘dream big’ haven’t we...

While we know every journey begins with a single step, it can look more like a leap or pole vault from where we are. The gap may be too big for us to imagine crossing or closing. 

And then ... ‘oh hello overwhelm, you cheeky beast!’

To identify what brings about our own overwhelm is a discovery that’s worth the work. My overwhelm may be different to yours, which could be different to theirs. 

No deep probing and analysis required; just watch your patterns. 

They are there. 

The next few times you’re overwhelmed hold great insight. These give us the chance to redefine the often generalised use of the word ‘overwhelm’. 

It’s then that breakthroughs for better ways of thinking, working and living will come.

Minute by minute - hour by hour

It’s how we make sense when nothing seems to make sense. 

As facts change and there is new data, we know more. As more information comes to light, the situation changes and we learn more. 

Then we act again. 

As we learn more from those actions, we act again. 

It’s one of the best reasons for getting into action sooner. Sooner than you think you should. 

You’ll get hindsight and be able to look back on what happened, on how it went. We can’t know everything before taking action, but we can make adjustments once we’re in action. 

Get going on that project or task. Things will look different again once you’re underway. 

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.

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.