‘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.

TL; DR 'Too long; didn’t read'

We’re drowning in it! Information overload from packs, keynotes, talks, sessions, webinars, meetings, presentations, conversations aarrrggh NOT TO MENTION OUR OWN THOUGHTS and Netflix binges, podcasts, audio books, Spotify playlists oh and pretty journals.

How do we take in more ...or just make better, quicker sense of things?

If you move from a mess to a list, to a pack, to a pic... all of these have pros and cons but the one that wins the race, the journey, the transformation is… the MAP.

We already enjoy a daily use of maps:

• Where is my food delivery?
• Why did the driver go down that street?
• Which is the quickest route to the cafe?

Maps have gone full circle (full globe?) from being crusty old, folded-the-wrong-way paper, to books of maps, to apps of maps. We know what maps look like and use them all the time. They guide and show us the unknown, unseen.

So it's too bad (and so silly) that more leaders don’t use maps instead of weighty wastes of slide decks that sucked weeks of time and tinkering from us. It could have all be done in 1/10th of the time, with 10x the impact ... with a map.

Do you map? Here’s one I prepared earlier :-)

Liking it or living it

Have you read something, loved it, talked about it… but not done anything with it? Maybe you learned something and thought ‘oh there's a whole other world out there I wasn’t aware of.' Wherever you are with something may not be where others are.

❇️ If you’ve just learned about it, others may have been living it. For ages.

❇️ And if you’re fanatically living it, others can be still completely unaware of it.

Whether it’s a fitness regime, food choices, a way of working or a way of thinking, there’s a progression, a ladder. Fans of stuff admire and enjoy it. But only a few of us go on to actually use it and live it. This applies to skills, activities, techniques, knowledge.

Old guitar in the garage?

Skateboard in the shed?

Business technique you've never really tried?

App you’ve never opened?

Just being aware or admiring it keeps you out of the game. It keeps you safe from learning, developing and changing. To avoid failing or looking silly we spend a lot of time admiring and enjoying others’ activities, ideas and achievements. Yet we complain of overwhelm and overload.

Use it and live it, or consider deleting it. It takes up real estate in the place you keep all of your overwhelm.

Changing conditions

Woah! Watch out, take care!

'Variable water depth and drop off’ says the sign at my local beach here in Melbourne, Australia. If this is the first time you’ve come to this beach, then this information is vitally important. It could save your life! Waters are clear but not so clear that we can always see the bottom.

The signs I’ve been sharing in posts this week may well be about water, beach and swimming safety, but they’re a brilliant reminder for us in many other situations.

Be ready; that solid ground you’re standing on could shift, move, change. And while we think conditions are set or predictable, they can and do change rapidly.

This is a common environment for us now in a world that’s labelled ‘VUCA’, in workplaces undergoing change or transformation, and in people who may be fed up hearing about all of those things!

We can become complacent, comfortable, habitual. And so an unexpected change or shift, is just that … unexpected. These times are about our ability to adapt, change and to be ready.

It is having a capability of adaptability.

Currents, turbulence and disturbed air flows

We often expect things to be smooth and uninterrupted. I heard a driver shout ‘get out of my way’ to a fellow road user this morning.

It’s a complaint of our time, always expecting a clear path. But not every cruise can be on calm seas; not every flight is entirely smooth. Weather patterns clash and collide and we travel through so much airspace that we’re bound to encounter different situations.

This is most certainly the case in our diverse workplaces and communities. It happens in teams, in projects … even in meetings. We have a rich mix of styles, types, modes, preferences and behaviours. All colliding. And we need to be able to make progress with them, not against them.

What’s going on in your team or project may not be permanent. It may just be a passing current, passing weather, a ripple or ruffle from something else. Don’t be too quick to smooth it.

In becoming better facilitators of processes and people, we can learn how to go with currents. Just like a rip in the ocean or at a surf beach, fighting it is tiring, pointless, dangerous. Going with it usually takes you to another exit point, another way of exploring it, solving it and surviving it.