Person going to a remote cabin possibly for strategic reflection

#050 – Remote cabins – space for strategic reflection

Get some serious thinking time to prepare for the future you want – Organise a day-long meeting with yourself and no interruptions

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The benefits of Strategic Reflection

Why take this challenge?

Clarity about who you want to become

A practical set of steps to get there

Planning the resources that will support you

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This is the last in this series of adventures, and so it is fitting that it is about setting aside a serious time out to plan your next voyage, wherever that will take you. It is about scheduling a meeting with yourself.

Blaise Pascal once said ‘All human evil comes from a single cause, our inability to sit still in a room’

And lets face it, in these ‘always on’ days, sitting alone in a room does not happen by accident. There are so many calls on our time, so many distractions, so many things rattling around our head, that getting time to ourselves is a rare thing. And when we do get it, it is probably as a result of a mindfulness or Yoga exercise, and our minds are deliberately occupied with emptiness.

But what we are talking about here is a place of calm where we can think, clearly and deeply, about what we want, and how we can bring it about. It is about programming ourselves with the impact we want to have. It is about the things we have talked about in adventure numbers 43, 45 and 46 – direction, values, motivation. And it is about getting some serious time and space to work it through and make sure you get the benefits you want from it.

A meeting with yourself

So there are no tracks in this final adventure – only a choice about where, when and how long you are going to spend on it.

We recommend a solid day. Somewhere peaceful, undisturbed, perhaps at a distance, and in an inspiring location. With the phones and email off. The do not disturb sign on. A meeting solely with yourself. And the only thing on the agenda is: What do I want? Where am I starting from? How do I get between the two? (These are expanded in the list below)

And the only step you need to do today is to block the time in your calendar, and to book the location and any travel required.

Graphic image reflecting the idea of a Pack of resources to support the adventurer in the challenge

You may find the following resources helpful in tackling your challenge or in gaining further benefits from the skills and insights you develop

To catch up on past adventures you may have missed, feel free to browse our Adventures Library

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Let us know how you get on.
Share your experience, your insights and your observation using the comments section at the bottom of the Linkedin post.

Please help us to extend and develop our community by sharing what you are doing. Click on the links below where you are most active, and then like or share the article to your network. Thank you for helping.

And share your progress and insights with the Twitter LbA community using #leadingbyadventure

Useful links:

Image of compass in glass orb - metaphor for setting direction

#046 – Compass Headings – Setting your Direction

Clarify the difference you want to make in this world – Build on the totem exercise to translate hope into action

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The benefits of setting direction and goals

Why take this challenge?

Translate your values into clear goals, direction and statements of intent

Align your impact and influence with the difference you want to be in the World

Create a direction that makes you proud in what you achieve

 

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In last week’s adventure – Carve your Totem – we looked at values, and what is most important to you. We talked about what it means to value, and the role of sacrifice therein.

In this week’s adventure we will be building on this. We will be working to identify the direction you want to take, and the difference you want to make in respect of your values. The mark you want to leave on this World.

It seems appropriate to include this just before the end of this series of adventures.

 

Graphic image reflecting the idea of a Pack of resources to support the adventurer in the challenge

You may find the following resources helpful in tackling your challenge or in gaining further benefits from the skills and insights you develop

  • Forcefield Analysis helps map the influences on you in successfully delivering your values.
  • Why How Charting enables you to better see the connections between your values and your goals.
  • Strategic engagement matrix enables you to systematically and strategically support your values through your ways of working.
  • Threshold of Pride helps you to identify the best level of achievement (for you) in all of this.

To catch up on past adventures you may have missed, feel free to browse our Adventures Library

 

Graphic image suggesting the idea of posting a record of the adventurer's journey

Let us know how you get on.
Share your experience, your insights and your observation using the comments section at the bottom of the Linkedin post.

Please help us to extend and develop our community by sharing what you are doing. Click on the links below where you are most active, and then like or share the article to your network. Thank you for helping.

And share your progress and insights with the Twitter LbA community using #leadingbyadventure

Useful links:

 

Image of totem poles as a reflection of personal values

#045 – Carve your Totem – Define your values

Develop greater insight into your personal values and their role in influencing your thinking – Use modelling and metaphor to explore what is important to you

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The benefits of defining your values

Why take this challenge?

Gain greater influence over the shape of things around you

Increase the fulfilment and satisfaction from your work

Better align ‘being’ and ‘doing’ – your identity and your actions

 

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Values are described as: principles or standards of behaviour; one’s judgement of what is important in life.

Unfortunately, most people’s experience of them is as a list of ‘nice to have’ corporate platitudes, framed and hung on a wall. Things to aspire to as long as they do not get in the ways of profit and performance.

But how do we actually value something? What is it that actually gives that something ‘value’? I would argue that we only really ‘value’ something if we are willing to sacrifice other things we value in order to attain or preserve it – time, money, position, reputation, …. If we can work out what we will sacrifice things for, we can identify what it is we really value. It could be a long list.

But what tops that list? Identifying our most important values can help guide us in making good choices and reinforcing a sense of integrity in ourselves.

This week’s adventure is all about identifying your values, and drafting a visual reflection of them in the form of a totem pole.

 

Graphic image reflecting the idea of a Pack of resources to support the adventurer in the challenge

You may find the following resources helpful in tackling your challenge or in gaining further benefits from the skills and insights you develop

To catch up on past adventures you may have missed, feel free to browse our Adventures Library

 

Graphic image suggesting the idea of posting a record of the adventurer's journey

Let us know how you get on.
Share your experience, your insights and your observation using the comments section at the bottom of the Linkedin post.

Please help us to extend and develop our community by sharing what you are doing. Click on the links below where you are most active, and then like or share the article to your network. Thank you for helping.

And share your progress and insights with the Twitter LbA community using #leadingbyadventure

Useful links:

 

Image of person thinking - reflecting on uncovering motivation

#043 – Uncovering Motivation

Increase your motivation by making clearer connections to your purpose – Use the Five Whys technique to gain new insight on your goals and how to get themImage of person thinking - reflecting on uncovering motivation

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The benefits of better uncovering motivation

Why take this challenge?

Increase your motivation by making clearer connections to your purpose

Prune and refocus your workload to better align it with your goals

Identify new creative opportunities to deliver what you need to happen

 

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George Eliot wrote “What makes life dreary is the want of a motive”. This insight is taken significantly further by two powerful minds in Simon Sinek (Start with Why) and Dan Pink (Drive).

Losing sight of why you are doing things not only makes work harder, it also makes it seem harder still. When our work loses focus on our outcomes, it quickly becomes inefficient in pursuing them. And when all we can see is the next task, our sense of purpose fades and ceases to energise and inspire us. Work becomes more of a effort and time begins to drag.

When this happens, if we have not fallen asleep, we need to think about uncovering motivation.

One of the simplest and most powerful tools we know for doing this is a Japanese discipline called ‘The Five Whys’. It was invented by the founder of Toyota back in the 1930s. And it is best understood by imagining a small child meeting every answer you give them with “… but why?”

Often, by the third ‘why’ it is not uncommon (if we are honest) to realise that we haven’t really thought about it that much. And when we do think about it, it is not uncommon that we can spot other, better, ways of doing it.

 

Graphic image reflecting the idea of a Pack of resources to support the adventurer in the challenge

You may find the following resources helpful in tackling your challenge or in gaining further benefits from the skills and insights you develop

To catch up on past adventures you may have missed, feel free to browse our Adventures Library

 

Graphic image suggesting the idea of posting a record of the adventurer's journey

Let us know how you get on.
Share your experience, your insights and your observation using the comments section at the bottom of the Linkedin post.

Please help us to extend and develop our community by sharing what you are doing. Click on the links below where you are most active, and then like or share the article to your network. Thank you for helping.

And share your progress and insights with the Twitter LbA community using #leadingbyadventure

Useful links:

 

Image of boxer - metaphor for competing with yourself

#039 – Shadow Boxing – Competing with yourself

Deliberately sharpen your approach by competing with yourself. How would the best version of yourself apply for your role anew?

Please help us to get the word out in just two clicks – click here – then click the like button

The benefits of competing with yourself

Why take this challenge?

New perspectives on the potential of your role and what you can achieve

Refreshing your ways of thinking and of working

Engaging your team in exploring the potential of their roles

 

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When you first applied for your job, what did you say in the interview to help your new colleagues understand how you would add value to what they were doing?

Chances are, it was a pretty good story. And you managed to think it through with only a partial picture of what the job was really about.

But now, some time on, you know a lot more about the role and its context. Given the time to prepare, you would be able to give a much better answer, right?

But is it as good as it could be? Suppose your job came up for ‘competitive tender’, would your proposal be the best, or might someone else provide an even better answer?

Shadow boxing is the activity of sparring with an imaginary opponent as a form of training. It is about competing with yourself to sharpen yourself against yourself. And this week’s adventure is about applying that concept to your own role.

 

Graphic image reflecting the idea of a Pack of resources to support the adventurer in the challenge

You may find the following resources helpful in tackling your challenge or in gaining further benefits from the skills and insights you develop

  • SWOT analyses can help people take a more objective look at themselves and their situation.
  • The reframing matrix we used in Adventure #033 can help you take new perspectives on how you do your role
  • The pyramid principle is a helpful structure for thinking through proposals.
  • And matrix diagrams can help your team explore more deeply what they are doing and why and how they do it.

To catch up on past adventures you may have missed, feel free to browse our Adventures Library

 

Graphic image suggesting the idea of posting a record of the adventurer's journey

Let us know how you get on.
Share your experience, your insights and your observation using the comments section at the bottom of the Linkedin post.

Please help us to extend and develop our community by sharing what you are doing. Click on the links below where you are most active, and then like or share the article to your network. Thank you for helping.

And share your progress and insights with the Twitter LbA community using #leadingbyadventure

Useful links:

 

People pondering around a campfire on a beach - metaphor for hopes and concerns exercise

#020 – Campfire Truths

Discover where people are coming from and their expectations – Build greater awareness and ownership for the outcomes

Benefits of Hopes and Concerns exercise

Why take this challenge?

Clear the air and understand where people might be coming from.

Understand any initial differences in expectations.

Build greater awareness and ownership for the outcomes.

Simply build a shared understanding, a shared hope.

 

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

This weeks challenge for you and your team is called Hopes and Concerns.

At one level Hopes and Concerns is extremely simple. It is a flipchart divided down the middle, and people place their hopes on one side and their concerns on the other.

Hopes and concerns for what? Well it could be for anything: A meeting; the week ahead; a new project; the business; a change initiative – whatever.

However, its simplicity belies its power. Hopes and concerns is a great tool for: Aligning people behind objectives; surfacing hidden agendas; developing balanced perspectives; understanding each other; building ownership and getting things started.

If you are using a virtual whiteboard in your meeting, people can stick up their thoughts on sticky-notes, and then they can be grouped and discussed. Alternatively, you can use a virtual flipchart to capture contributions offered by the group verbally.

A couple of important tips that help ensure the quality of this exercise:

  1. To get balanced contributions, get people to write down two of each silently, and confirm they have all done so before inviting them to stick them up or shout them out
  2. Say to the group: “We’ll keep these visible so that we can all work toward fulfilling the hopes and avoiding the concerns”. In this way you share responsibility for them and make the desired outcomes more likely

Also, it there are any items on either list that you will not be able to do anything about. Simply make that clear from the outset, and say that we can pick it up again after the meeting.

 

Graphic image reflecting the idea of a Pack of resources to support the adventurer in the challenge

You may find the following resources helpful in tackling your challenge or in gaining further benefits from the skills and insights you develop

To catch up on past adventures you may have missed, feel free to browse our Adventures Library

 

Graphic image suggesting the idea of posting a record of the adventurer's journey

Let us know how you get on.
Share your experience, your insights and your observation using the comments section at the bottom of the Linkedin post.

Please help us to extend and develop our community by sharing what you are doing. Click on the links below where you are most active, and then like or share the article to your network. Thank you for helping.

And share your progress and insights with the Twitter LbA community using #leadingbyadventure

Useful links: