Everyone’s got note pads but no one is making sense

A meeting room I was in recently had a table with 8 people seated at it. Each person had arrived at the meeting with a collection of props and belongings:

- a water bottle

- their ID/security card

- their mobile device

- notepad and pen.

The notepad and pen - yes, an analogue tool, but powerful nonetheless.

Everyone in the meeting was writing their own notes down. Their own insights, their own wording, their own triggers for ideas, their own recollection.

It was very singular, individual even though it was a group meeting. Great! They’re making sense of things, but oh no ...they're doing it alone. Someone says something, then everyone’s head drops down and they all write it down in their own notepad, their own 'map' of the world they're talking about.

We’re individuals trying to work this stuff out as a group.

Sensemaking - it can be done alone or better... together.

Rather than everyone looking at their own 'map', make a group map, a central map on a whiteboard or flipchart.

More progress is made in uncertainty when we have a common point of visual context. 

Developing adaptability - your willingness to change

The next 4 ideas I’m posting on adaptability are:

5️⃣ Facilitation

Our world of work needs greater ease and progress, less red tape. Facilitation is about making things easier and to facilitate we'll need to give up being a control freak and be able to flex.

6️⃣ Visualisation

We're drowning in information! We need quicker and clearer ways to convey ideas and thinking. It's time to get over our ‘I can’t draw’ complex, and start making sketching, imagery and visualising an everyday kind of thing.

7️⃣ Experimentation

Do you test, try, fail and learn? That's adaptability right there! Good things are often brought about through advancing and pioneering schools of thought. Today’s workplaces need to be more laboratory than court room.

8️⃣ Improvisation

Responding to uncertainty is a daily requirement. Operating from principles rather than prescriptions can help because no two situations are the same, no two people are the same. Improv doesn’t just belong on the stage, in comedy festivals or on TV. 

The secret to leadership is simple

'The secret to leadership is simple’. So said Seth Godin ... and he says many wonderfully frank, clear and compelling things.

The concept, behavior and practice of leadership can get complicated and confusing - especially when you’re in the thick of it.

Like when you’re dealing with the human side (which is most of the time), or handling conflict and tension or leading through a significant and unsettling time of change (which is most of the time).

The slide deck from that leadership program or your ‘colour’ from that diagnostic tool might not help you so much when you’re waist deep in the tricky stuff.

Seth’s quote below here has been a helpful guide to me. So much so, I “elevated” it : that is, I took the words and made an artifact, an anchor, a reminder of it, and put it in front of my face where I can see it...to remind myself to not make leadership too complicated.

Has leadership become too complicated? What helps you with leadership?

Business Design and the Rise of the Toolsmiths

Responding to the complex and challenging environment most businesses are operating in today is about being adaptive, agile and nimble. 

But the trouble is, most of us are using tools that are from a bygone era. That's dated, rigid and stuck!

My sketch video and visual image this week looks at mutations, stories and visualisation. These are the tools of today. 

Join this "Rise of the Toolsmiths" and make sure you're equipped to respond!

The Future of Work

Eating 3D printed food? Your front door greeting you when you get home? More robots on the planet than people?

These were some of the predictions from the Future of Work conference last week. 

This week's sketch video highlights how we have to adapt and transform!

Click on the other visuals I crafted to see more about The Future of Work:

     
So… what are you doing now to deal with the future of the world… the future of work?