Adventure

Articles to support the adventures

Glass orb representing the first 50 adventures in Leading by Adventure

Leading by Adventure – Series 1

by
Series 1 began on 5th January 2021 and completed on 25th January 2022. It has been a rich and varied exploration from a wide range of different perspectives. The full catalogue can be seen below.
If you have missed any of the adventures, you will (for the next few months at least) be able to access them from the adventures library.

What next?

I have been working on ideas for Series 2, and at some point I would like to launch another series of 50 adventures. If you have any ideas for inclusion in this please get in touch with me.
However, the current series of adventures represents a pretty comprehensive resource for anyone wishing to stretch and exercise their ‘leading by adventure’ muscles (see below). That said, I do not believe they are at their best as a library. I think they work better as a weekly programme. And so my intention, at some point, is to create a mailing service which people can initiate independently.
If you know of someone that would like to use this service, and would like to accelerate my development of it please get in touch.
In the meantime, I plan to refocus my efforts on the toolchest. To continue the work in helping people make their meetings and team work more participative, inclusive and uplifting. These resources also represent ‘leading by adventure’ – the facilitation of people to share new perspectives and develop new skill sets.
For that reason, if you have not done so already, I would suggest that you subscribe to the toolchest (it is free). This will enable you to keep updated and refreshed with new ways that you can inspire and energise your team.

Series 1 Catalogue

Images of adventures 1-50
If you have missed any of the adventures, or would like to revisit them, you will (for the next few months at least) be able to access them from the adventures library.
Person pausing to reflect sat on a wall beside an estuary

#030a – Pause for August

by

Pause for August

We will be taking a small breather from the weekly adventures for the month of August. An opportunity to take stock, reflect, reconnect, reset.

I will still be sending out an email each Tuesday. But it will be a brief (& very ignorable) suggestion for how you might use each week to reflect on your journey so far.

The suggestion for the week of the 3rd August is to think about:

  • What adventures have most blessed you and why?
  • Are there any clues in this for how you can continue to best develop your thinking?
  • Might you want to take the opportunity of this pause to revisit those adventures?

 

The suggestion for the week of 10th August is to reflect back on our Objective. Our purpose in Leading by Adventure has been to exercise and nurture the skills and attitudes of seeing change as an adventure – both in ourselves and those around us.

  • To what extent are you aware of any shift in your own skills and attitudes in stepping into the opportunities of change?
  • How would you most liked to see yourself develop in this way?
  • To what extent have you been able to realise that?
    What do you think have been the reasons for this?
  • What do you want to do differently when the adventures restart on September 7th?

 

The suggestion for the week of 17th August is to reflect back on the Process we have been using. Our approach in Leading by Adventure has been to provide small challenges and exercises we can use to deliberately shift our perspective and see things differently for a few moments. It is not so much about the task as about exercising our will, ability and enjoyment to engage with these opportunities.

  • How has that been working for you? To what extent has the process enabled you to practice these things in yourself?
  • What do you see as the biggest factors in this?
  • What do you want to change when we restart on September 7th?

 

The suggestion for the week of 24th August is to reflect back on the leadership aspects of our adventures. The different tracks in Leading by Adventure are about providing a pathway to extend your own adventures and make them available to help those around you to develop their own skills and attitudes in stepping into the opportunities of change.

  • How has this been working in your own situation?
  • What has been the response of the team?
  • What do you think are the reasons for this?
  • What might you choose to do differently from September?

 

And finally, for the week of 31st August, and based on your reflections to date, how can Leading by Adventure better support you in helping yourself and those around you develop attitudes of adventuring into the opportunities of change? Please email me via the email address below and let me know any thoughts or ideas you might have to make this more effective for you. 

Our next adventure begins on 7th September. How can you help extend the reach of Leading by Adventure? To enable more people to benefit from this? Please encourage others to benefit from freely subscribing to our Adventures. 

 

I am not going away for August, I am still here, working from Home so, if you would like to connect, feel free to contact me directly … 

Useful links:

 

Image of woman staring at futuristic images - metaphor for leading adventure in others

Leading Adventure in Others

by

“The future is a different country, they do things differently there”.

At some point the future will become our place of residence. But, if we are to make ourselves at home in it … If we are to realise its potential … We will need to embrace that transition. Adventuring is about developing that readiness to journey into it.
To illustrate what I mean, I would ask you to take a look at the people around you. If you do, you are likely to find a spectrum of different attitudes to their current situation and responsibilities.
Some are stressed, disappointed, disengaged, entrenched, resistant, awkward, resentful.
And some are excited, enthused, immersed, joyful, curious, compassionate.
Some are victims of the changes that have brought them to where they are
And some are adventurers within it.
There are those who have attitudes that help them to see the opportunities in change. These attitudes are fed and reinforced by what they make of those opportunities. And this helps to nourish their mental health.
And there are others who have attitudes which focus on the risks and the downsides of change. They resist the new, cling to the old, and may be unprepared for what happens. As a result their attitude is also fed and reinforced by their experience, and their mental health suffers.

the danger for all of us is that the increasing rate of change is likely to push us in the wrong direction…

Most of us, fall somewhere closer to the middle of this spectrum.
But the danger for all of us is that the increasing rate of change is likely to push us in the wrong direction unless we intentionally increase our ability to engage positively with it. That has been the purpose of the Leading by Adventure programme.

… unless we intentionally increase our ability to engage positively with it

Over the three months from April to June 2021, Leading by Adventure focused on the ‘leading’ element of adventure. It shared a sequence of tools that can be used to facilitate the engagement of teams with the opportunities of change: SWOT, Forcefields, Fishbones, Intuition, Hopes & Concerns, Brutethink, Staying Open, PMI, Solution Effect, ORID, Kanban, and Review.  And it has also shared tailored resources to support this in the form of Virtual Flipcharts and Instant Whiteboards.
12 video stills of the Adventure series on leading adventure in others
 
These tools help to enable people to contribute better to what is happening. And through this to take fuller ownership of the possibilities. By using them, leaders can better develop the attitudes and the skill set of their people in rising above the change, and seeing its pattern and potential. They can navigate change, rather than feel subject to it. They can see themselves as adventurers not victims.
The exercises in Leading by Adventure., help us to practice the skills of ‘journey’ in ourselves and our team. Deliberately taking a few minutes out each week to try something new. To develop our intellectual and emotional ‘muscles’ in embracing a growth mindset.
To access the full set of Adventures to date, please click here.
Picture of one person helping another on a climb - metaphor for trust

The Tyranny of Trust

by
Imagine yourself in the following situation …
Your company has recognised the importance of trust to effective teamwork. You have been part of numerous trust and teamwork exercises, where people have been vulnerable, and learned and grown together. It has been tough, but it has been fun, and much has improved as a result. And recently, the shared narrative has become: “We no longer need anonymity in any form of feedback, because anonymity undermines the trust and openness we now have!” What a wonderful place to be.
But you know it’s wrong.
Your boss said it, and nobody chose to challenge it. To do so seemed somehow disloyal. To break trust. And nobody seemed confident in mustering the arguments to effectively ‘oppose’ it. Or indeed, looking around the table, to count on their colleagues for support in this.
The fact is, we are all human, we all have issues and insecurities. And for some of us, those issues and insecurities can make the challenge of leadership uncomfortable – particularly within older (but still very prevalent) paradigms of leadership. And as a result, we can become defensive, and use force of reason and partial truths to cow the challenges we encounter – particularly if the challenger feels exposed and fears their honesty might be held against them.

Trust is a journey

But not all challenges are there to be beaten, and not all truths can be understood by logic alone. Let’s face it, we do not even have words for much of what we are thinking and feeling. Concepts like belonging, confidence, identity and love are key to our mental health, happiness and success but are difficult to articulate and argue (or even understand clearly). And yet these concepts are essential components of the trust we seek.
Trust is not a destination – it is far too complex for that. Trust is a journey. And nowhere along that journey is there a point where anonymity does not add value. At times, it may not be necessary, and you will be able to see this when the anonymous feedback directly mirrors the in-person feedback. But even here it acts as a bellwether: Either providing us with confidence that we are where we think we are; or highlighting where reality is drifting from the current narrative.

The paradox of anonymity and trust

Giving up all forms of anonymity is not a sign that you have achieved ‘trust’, it is rather a precursor to inevitably losing it. But losing it in a way where the ‘tyranny of trust’ pretty much blocks your ability to do anything about it.
So, if you find yourself in the hypothetical (but all too real*) situation described above, my hope is that this brief article equips you with the arguments to gently, but firmly, stand against it.
After all, if ‘trust’ is real, what is there to fear from anonymity?
*I seem to recall one actual line was: “No! We have worked hard to build trust, and we have it now, and any form of anonymous feedback would be a step backwards!” The thing is, often the people who say these things really believe them. For them it is a convenient truth – something that gives them comfort against their hidden internal dread of ‘being found out and exposed’. But the thing is, that dread is usually far worse and more damaging than the reality of what might ensue. Trust lies, not in the facts, but in having faith in your colleagues’ responses to you, after the facts. 
St Augustine put it well:  “The act of faith is to believe what we cannot see. The reward of faith is to see what we believe”. And this is as true of our relationships with each other as it is with the Almighty. Trust is built on faith.
Picture of someone timidly stepping onto rickety bridge - metaphor for tapping intuition

Using intuition to predict the future

by

Tapping into Intuition - using our timidity to augment our logic

How can we use more of our inherent wisdom to make better decisions with a more secure outcome?
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

What would be the value of knowing, right from the outset, which of an organisations projects will most likely fail?
Supposing there was a simple test you could use to provide a reliable indicator of future failure? How much money, effort and enthusiasm could you save.

Surprisingly, it turns out that this simple test already exists.

The $500 Bet

Back in the 80s, I read that one of the major consulting firms undertook a study of failed projects. In this study, they interviewed the original team members of those projects. One of the questions they asked was: “Think back to the time when you launched this project. Imagine you could have bet $500 of your own money on the success of this project. Would you have placed that bet?”

The question threw people back to how they were feeling at the point of launch. It tended to make them reflect on their emotions and intuition at the time. And almost universally, they answered: “No, I wouldn’t!”

It turns out that  the two aspects of their wisdom were in contradiction. The conscious, rational part of their minds were pushing, maybe enthusiastically, for the project to proceed. But, somewhere inside them, at that very point in time, there was unease. The more subconscious, intuitive parts of their minds were already communicating concerns. And all they needed to help them to access that intuition was a thinking device. In this case, a hypothetical bet of their own wealth.

Thinking devices help us access intuition

The thing is, our intuition can process the ambiguities and uncertainties that are beyond our capacity for analysis and calculation. Even amid the complexities that exist in large projects (and increasingly also in small ones). We can sense truths even before they are realised. And that sense can be remarkably helpful if we access it at the right time, and in the right way.

It is this phenomena that lies at the heart of a meeting tool called “The $500 bet” (which you can find as a template for virtual meetings here). People simply place their avatar (or cursor) in the ‘Yes’ square or the ‘No’ square in response to the question: “Would you bet $500 of your own money on this being a success?”

The purpose of this question is not so crass as to decide the fate of the project. We simply need it to help us access that intuition. And to do it in a way that we can use it to work with our rational minds. In that way, we can work out how to fix whatever is causing the greatest risks.

Highlighting opportunity

The follow up question is therefore: “So, what would need to be different for you to feel comfortable in making that bet?”

This enables people to use their imagination in conjunction with their intuition to reveal the truths that we need to address if the team to be truly be confident of success. In the template, these can be added as sticky notes. The team prioritises these to a practical subset which they need to address, and then ask the question again of themselves (provisional upon the actions). And they do this up until the point when the team really would bet their own money on its success.

A few minutes intuition, or hours in rework?

The tool is simple. It takes barely seconds to apply if the answer is ‘Yes’ from the outset. And if the answer is ‘No’? Well, the extra time in getting to ‘yes’ from ‘no’ is a pitifully small investment in comparison to the costs of failure. Try it out in adventure #019

“The $500 bet” is one of a suite of easy to apply tools and templates for virtual meetings. Activate any of them, in seconds, right in the middle of your meeting, with no prior set-up or preparation, and no cost. Each is designed to better engage people and their ideas, and to build greater commitment in the outcomes.

Simply bookmark the page https://meeting.toolchest.org/participation for the next time you sense that it would be good to gain more involvement, new perspectives, or a more balanced exploration.

Integrative Complexity - Mural of Donald Trump

Integrative Complexity – Or why I should listen to Donald

by
Integrative Complexity - Mural of Donald Trump

What should be my response to an increasingly divided society, and those who seem to be intent on dividing it further?
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dr Sara Savage is a friend, a psychologist and a renowned world expert on something called ‘Integrative Complexity’. She uses it to understand terrorism and to work with those who are at risk of radicalisation. (Although she is on the side of the Angels of course).
And when I listen to Sara, and her insights, I begin to realise how we are ALL in imminent danger of also being radicalised.
We become radicalised when we see things too simplistically; when our values become polarised; when we stop understanding things deeply enough that we are forced to balance those values; and to work with those who balance them differently.
Radicalisation occurs when our values become so focused and exclusive that we stop understanding those on the other side of the argument. Radicalisation is what leads to a section of the population physically attacking their seat of government.

Integrative Complexity is about maintaining a wider viewpoint

And the fact is, it is not ‘them’. It is ‘us’. We may be being radicalised in the opposite direction, but we are still being radicalised.
The world has become more complex, not less, but our societal response to it is to run away from it. To seek sound bites, to look for simplistic certainty in our media rather than balanced but unresolved arguments, to surround ourselves with only those voices that are easy for us to identify with.
And the way I can recognise that radicalisation is taking place in me, is because I find myself struggling to appreciate the motives of those who continue to support the 45th US President and accept his stories.
And while I realise that I am not alone in this (nearly all my network feels the same), that does not make me right. In fact it is far more likely to mean that I am a victim of my own echo chamber. And I suspect that you probably are too – whichever side of the debate you are on.

And the problem with that is that if we don’t break out of it … it is only going to get worse.

Protester with placard reading 'I want to be Heard' reflecting the need for Integrative ComplexityIntegrative Complexity is key to moving forward. If I cannot value ‘the other side’ as people … Or follow their logic and conclusions … And if I refuse to appreciate their perspectives … Then how do I understand and respect them?
And if I don’t understand and respect them … Why would they talk with me?v

And if we are not talking … How do I pose the questions that might bring mutual appreciation and care? And if I cannot use language to resolve a widening gulf … What options are left to me, or indeed to them?
In Leading by Adventure this week (2nd March 2021) the Red Track challenge is to take something mainstream that you fundamentally disagree with, and understand what leads people to follow it.
You don’t have to come to agree with it. You just have to reach a point where you can understand why someone in different circumstances might. Where you can even see how, under different circumstances, you may have been drawn into it too. And where you can begin to recognise that someone who holds those views is another person not that radically different to you.
Because if we cannot truly appreciate our humanity in each other, the only option we leave ourselves is to demonise. And as self-fulfilling prophecies go, that is not going to be a good one to experience.
Glass orb of cornfield

Do you appreciate your blessing?

by

The precise numbers change with time, but in relative terms the following in pretty accurate ….

 

“If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of the world.

If you have money in your bank, your wallet, and some spare change, you are among 8 percent of the world’s wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the agony of imprisonment or torture or the horrible pangs of starvation, you are luckier than 500 million people alive and suffering.

If you can read this message, you are more fortunate than 3 billion people in the world who cannot read at all.”

Source Unknown

 

Given how much the vast majority of the World’s population would enjoy swapping places with us, it seems such a tragic waste that we might not only take our lot for granted, but allow ourselves to be miserable about it too. Perhaps it is time for a rethink?

 

For an adventure related to this poem click here.

The Station by Robert Hastings courtesy Pixabay

The Station and Marketing Disatisfaction

by
The Station by Robert Hastings courtesy Pixabay
Gratitude is a phenomenal blessing to the person who feels that gratitude. It magnifies the appreciation and joy in the thing we feel gratitude for. It increases our general sense of happiness and contentment. And it helps build relationships with those around us.

And yet, all to often, when we have an opportunity to feel gratitude we let it pass us by.

We tend to find it easier to take what we have for granted, and to focus instead on what we have not. Part of the reason for this is that there is a massive advertising industry geared to ensuring that we are generally dissatisfied with our current lot – and sometimes they seem to be very good at their job.

One of the most explicit examples of this was an advertising campaign for a new mobile phone in which all those using the older models walked around with paper bags on their heads with embarrassment. To be fair, they are usually more subtle than this, but the result is the same – after all, why would we choose to buy Y if we are blissfully happy with X.

The thing is, if I allow myself to be swept along by marketing campaigns, I don’t have long to appreciate what I have just bought from the last one before they convince us that me that I cannot be truly happy because I am still ‘missing out’. But the reality is, compared to the vast majority of the World population, we are not ‘missing out’!

Somebody described the secret of happiness as “not having all we desire, but desiring all we have”. Gratitude provides a huge lift to our spirits and our relationships.  This is beautifully reflected in Robert Hastings’ poem below.

For an exercise in gratitude, try out Adventure #008

 
 

The Station

A poem about appreciating ‘now’ by Robert Hastings

Tucked away in our subconscious minds is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long, long trip that almost spans the continent. We’re traveling by passenger train, and out the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hills, of biting winter and blazing summer and cavorting spring and docile fall.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour we will pull into the station. There will be bands playing, and flags waving. And once we get there so many wonderful dreams will come true. So many wishes will be fulfilled and so many pieces of our lives finally will be neatly fitted together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering … waiting, waiting, waiting, for the station.

However, sooner or later we must realize there is no one station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.

“When we reach the station that will be it!” we cry. Translated it means, “When I’m 18, that will be it! When I buy a new 450 SL Mercedes Benz, that will be it! When I put the last kid through college, that will be it! When I have paid off the mortgage, that will be it! When I win a promotion, that will be it! When I reach the age of retirement, that will be it! I shall live happily ever after!”

Unfortunately, once we get it, then it disappears. The station somehow hides itself at the end of an endless track

“Relish the moment” is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm 118:24: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad. Rather, it is regret over yesterday or fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who would rob us of today.

So, stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot oftener, swim more riers, watch more sunsets, laugh more and cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.

 

For an adventure related to this poem click here.

Image of Chris Blakeley talking about accessing deeper wisdom within ourselves

Accessing deeper wisdom within ourselves

by
In this video, Chris Blakeley of Waverley Learning explains some of the practices involved in using more of our mind, particularly the bits that are used to making split-second decisions in complex and uncertain environments. The parts that are more deeply connected to our physiology, and have been helping us thrive for thousands of years.

Transcript

The essence of all our work at Waverley and Saint George's in Windsor in what we call 'Nurturing Wisdom' is around leaders helping each other nurture wisdom and bring wisdom into leadership or into working life because, nowadays, we need that particularly with so much uncertainty and volatility, the big question we all find ourselves facing constantly is "What do I do when I don't know what to do; when new things are happening that I can't just figure out?"  And this is obviously links to all the work of Otto Scharmer and Peter Senge around what they call presencing.
And presencing is simply being present to what is really going on. Most of the time in business and leadership we don't get it wrong because we're incompetent, we get it wrong because we failed to notice, we failed to see what was really needed from us at that time. Often because our minds are caught with a whole load of stuff, a whole load of problems and issues that have us unable to really notice what what's really going on - whether it's with other people, whether it's in the situation, or, hardest of all often, to notice the real wisdom we're carrying in ourselves that we fail to bring.
And the amount of times people kick themselves and say "why didn't I say that?" "why didn't I do that?" And the answer, time and time again, is that we just weren't present. We weren't available to ourselves in the situation.
So that's the constant struggle really for all of us in busy lives is to stay available so that we can be powerful and effective. Aware and awake. Otto Scharmer calls this presencing, and his mantra is "Go to the place of stillness and let inner knowing emerge".
And so our assumption is there's a knowing that's available to all of us. It's not some sort of mystical thing, it's just a level of wisdom and awareness, that unless we're attentive to it we fail to access it. And and that's why we don't bring our full potential, or indeed release the potential in those around us.
So all the practices we employ at Waverley are ways of coming into what we call our 'Fuller Being', which is the the bigger wisdom, the bigger knowledge, that's flowing through us
And that work, when we speak about presencing, it normally involves what people often refer to as coming out of the mind or the head.  In a way, that's giving the head a bad press. The mind is this incredibly expanded resourceful reservoir of knowledge and intelligence, but there's a smaller part of the mind which is really the controlling, predicting, I'm keeping myself in control and on top of things. It's the more prime "we'll keep myself safe mind" and if we're not careful that just ends up running the show for us.
And when we're in that mind, you'll know it, when you're in that kind of slightly hunkered down way of thinking, then you're not really available to your full potential.
So a lot of our work then is just helping people access knowledge and wisdom that is completely available to us - we just don't let it flow, we don't let it be within us. So that means coming out of the the processing mind and accessing deeper resources. And the two obvious centers of knowing we we have is our heart knowing; And the heart knowing is is a different kind of knowing it's all about relationship and connection and you know when you've got connection with somebody you know when you haven't, not because you've analyzed it because you know in your heart that this is a wholesome high trust relationship where I can be very fully me, or where I have to be protective and closed.  And the heart has that intelligence available to it.
And then dropping down lower there's your gut knowing. So we often say: "I just knew in my gut". And that's sort of instinctive knowing. And the gut is really our groundedness, and our connection to our own deeper truth. It may not be THE truth but actually this is MY truth. And when we're founded in our gut, we'll notice there's a strength, and there's a clarity and a confidence, that again the mind might not be able to work out or explain, but you just know "This is the right thing to do". And that's because it's accessing our instinctive, our sensory, intelligence and that intelligence is about a hundred times faster than the mental processing that the cognitive mind is working on.
So that becomes the interesting challenge: "How do we occupy our being in a way that has us able to draw on our heart knowing, and to draw on our gut knowing, as well as our head knowing?"
And one of the issues is that often we're trained not to trust these thing. And of course no one's saying 'you always trust them', but what we do is make sure that this data is available to us. So that we can then make the best decisions, rather than operating, really, with a third of our capacity.
So how do we work with our fuller presence? And there's a very simple process:  The first step is to bring our awareness out of the mind. And the easiest way to do that is you bring it into the body. So bringing awareness into the body, and particularly to "breath", brings us presence. And you notice when you do that you feel a slightly expanded capacity.
Once we're present in the body then we can access our gut knowing more easily. And once we're present in the body, the heart feels safe, and then the heart can relax and open.
Accessing the intelligence of the heart is one of the hardest things to do, because the heart is so sensitive - it has to feel safe in order to to come online.
So we come into the body, first of all, to become present. That stills the mind to a certain extent, and allows the heart to open. And then these different intelligences become available too.
So, as a simple practice, just coming into the body, just bringing awareness into the body for a few seconds, can completely change your state. And you'll find that a 'stiller' state that allows you to access more of your own resources and to tap into the resources of others much better.
This can be particularly important in team situations.
So we all know in meetings how little time everybody is 'present'. So, we may be there in body, we're certainly rarely there in mind. So again, these practices are really important in group situations, so that we're all present at the same time, together.
And if we are, it can increase the efficiency of meetings massively. We have much shorter meetings because: we're all listening; we're all speaking our truth; and we just get to the heart of things much more quickly.

subscribe to our free weekly adventures

Sign up (it’s free) …

 

 

Catch up on our Adventures to date …

 

Read our Supporting Articles …

Black paint on face - metaphor for Breaking through the invisible boundaries (paradigms) that confine our potential

Fixing “That’s not me!” – video and transcript

by

 

Transcript

Rumi, the 6th Century Poet and Philospher, asked:
Why, in all the plenitude of God’s great universe, do you choose to fall asleep in this small, dark prison?
He was speaking to us all. He was speaking of the human condition. There are always prison walls – subconscious patterns that limit our thinking.
These Paradigms are patterns or constraints that have become so familiar to us that we have ceased to be cognitively aware of them. We literally don’t know that they are there, but we behave, automatically, as though they are. And we limit our ‘freedom of movement’ within them.
Early in my thirties, I was blessed to be put on a course by my employer, which was all about identifying and breaking these paradigms.
Leaving a room by the window rather than the door seemed such a stupid thing to do at the time, and I was quite taken aback at the sense of release we collectively felt when we did it.
The point, you may realise, was not that ‘stupid’ things are good things. It was that intentionally doing something ‘stupid’ does something in your subconscious that re-establishes you as the pilot of parts of your life where you had drifted to becoming an unconscious passenger.
It was about walking through an invisible wall. It was about appreciating that there are far more choices around us, every moment, than we allow ourselves to realise.
So, the challenge in Adventure number 2 is about identifying a wall, and stepping beyond it. It is about taking an existing habit, pattern or convention and …, for at least one time…, seriously considering doing it differently. Not conventionally differently, but unconventionally differently, to see how that feels.
To be frank, in practical terms, it is unlikely to improve things. But in spiritual terms I am hoping that it might begin to awaken something new.
It will seem weird. It will attract criticism (albeit probably unspoken). It will likely prove counterproductive to material progress.  But it is not about that.
It is about, for a moment at least, expressing your freedom and seeing the view from that different place – good or bad. It is about saying: ‘Yeah, what I just did may not be me … but this, … this me you think you know, … this is NOT all there is!’
It is about being the pilot again, and nudging the joy stick to the right, just to prove ‘you can’.
And it is about asking your spirit: Are you awake? Are you ready to play? Are you ready to knock down some walls? And about feeling what comes back at you. If only for a moment.
Part of my inspiration for this adventure was a response I received to my request for ideas for adventures. It was from a past client and friend called Dave. Dave has really been through the mill over the past few years. And he has seen a lot of what he previously perceived as his life ripped away from him. He wrote:
‘Sinking to deep lows’ has created a resilience within me, such that I am much more accepting of ‘now’, not concerned too much about what might happen, where I will be, or what I am doing. So that I can enjoy what I have much more, appreciate the situation, and also stand back and do what makes most sense. I feel very lucky in this regard, particularly when I see others who have what seem to be self-generated pressures, and are trapped, by their lack of knowledge, from trusting themselves to let go and come out the other side.”
It strikes me that, here, Dave has captured the essence of an ‘adventure mindset’. His words remind us of the fact that so many people who have been to the bottom, come back up with a more profound sense of life and living. They offer us a means to ‘learn’ without necessarily having to go through the ‘lesson’. If only we can muster the courage to take an honest look at ourselves without the trauma that forces that perspective upon us.
A sentiment from Bette Midler’s song, The Rose, resonates here. Perhaps it is the soul that has accepted death, which really recognises the value of living. The soul that has faced the abyss of all these things, that no longer lets ‘fear of them’ rob it of the journey toward them.
THAT soul knows the abyss can arrive without warning, whatever you do.  It is a soul that has confronted the false logic of: denying itself the experience of ‘living’ for fear of losing that same experience.
“That’s not ‘me’ …”  ???
Is that the ‘me’ that sleeps, in the shadows, imprisoned by invisible walls?
Or is that the ‘me’ that makes my heart leap and my soul sing?
Contrary to popular misconception, my Christian faith teaches that Jesus came that we should “have life, and have it in the fullest possible way”
My hope is that Adventure number 2 in some small way helps YOUR soul along that path.
God bless you.
Image of someone pondering the idea of adventure

Why Adventure?

by

3 reasons …

  1. Adventure, as a metaphor, describes the future we are all facing – the territory is unknown, wild, rapidly changing, treacherous, but with amazing things to see and experience
  2. Adventure reflects the mindset that we need to develop if we are to give ourselves the best opportunity of not only surviving this future, but thriving in it
  3. ‘Adventure’ is something that resonates with us. From childhood, it is a vocabulary that taps into our spirit. Into dreams, resources and values that reflect an aspiration. For many of us, it is something we wanted for ourselves ‘when we grew up’. And now  … We have grown up, and we need to repossess that child inside before they are permanently lost to us.

We are all on an adventure …

Life IS an adventure. The choices we make within that adventure impact how we experience it and our ability to influence it for good.
Staying the same is a decreasingly tenable option; one that puts us at a significant disadvantage and under a lot of stress.
Leading by Adventure is about how we engage and shape our adventure more proactively. Experimenting with how we engage with it, and using those experiments to deepen our understanding and insight into ourselves and into the nature of our adventure (and team). The adventure is different for each one of us.

About the future …

In the future, more and more of what we currently do will be automated and handled by Artificial Intelligence. It is tempting to look at our roles and say computers will never do that, or it won’t be economic, or people won’t accept it. But take a look back over some of the automation you are seeing around you. Would you have though the same about some of those things a decade or two ago?  Even where automation seems unlikely, we see the World adapt to make it possible. And this is a good thing. It is good to see freedom from mindless repetitive tasks. It frees us up to do more creative, relational, human things.
And key to this will be individual creativity and continuous learning. It is about doing things that machines cannot do.
The purpose of this series is to put you back in touch with those things, and to expand your capabilities within them.

Your challenge …

Your challenge – should you choose to accept it – is to implement at least one of the challenges each month. We make no promises (we cannot, the adventures are yours and yours alone). The purpose of the adventures is simply to provide the opportunity to take your perspective to different places, and to enable you to make informed choices about what you would like to do about the view. Some of the places may be a bit of a struggle to get to, but that is part of the exercise. To encourage you in this, we might suggest you take 10 minutes to watch Carol Dweck’s excellent TED talk on Growth Mindset.
The key question for you is, are you willing to commit (to yourself) to pitch your creativity against the unknown (the tasks)? To find some way to look differently and still get value out of it? And confront your existing patterns, go somewhere else, and see if you like it?

Including your team …

We would encourage you in the first instance to take this journey alone. However, if you have a team, you may at some point find that you want to use some of the resources to stretch their thinking. This could happen individually, or as a team.
If you want them to engage as a team, we suggest you hand-pick certain exercises which you are confident will move you all forward as a team. Ensure you have clear goals for the difference you want to achieve through the exercise, and explain this to them before you start. Explain, what you are preparing them for and why.
If you want them to engage individually, please bear in mind that everyone has their own adventures. It will only work if they are committed to use the adventures on their own behalf. Therefore take the time to explain why, what you are getting from it, and the difference that you hope they will be able to get from it. Help them develop their own vision for how they would like ‘future me’ to be different.
There is a lot of value in sharing your journey with others, learning from and encouraging each other. Whether or not you manage to enlist those around you, please help us by engaging with our on-line communities. Post your own experiences ( include #LeadingbyAdventure in your post) and read those of others, at:

Staying on track …

“Why in all the plenitude of God’s great universe do you choose to fall asleep in this small dark prison?”
With this pithy question, Rumi speaks so insightfully of the human condition. Our thinking is limited by walls (paradigms) all around us. But we often do not see them, because they give us comfort – they enable us to coast where we are – we can fall asleep within them. We hope these adventures will help you face some of those walls and knock holes in them.
You will of course find other walls a bit further out, but all the time your thinking has greater freedom and space to roam.
But, to quote Thomas Jefferson, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”. The price of stopping the walls from creeping back in is to keep doing exercises that maintain your wider awareness, and keeps your perspectives open.
And, lets face it, we all know how easy it is to fall asleep. How many things have you started with the best of intentions, and then woke up three months later wondering why it stopped?
It happens to all of us. So if you are serious about this, can I suggest some strategies that will help you to retain vigilance if you need it.

  • Firstly, create a picture of how you want to be ‘different’ in six months time, and send it to your future self using https://www.futureme.org/ or  https://theself.club/future-self/
  • Plan time into your calendar – whether it is for this programme or something else – weekly, monthly – to give yourself space to invest in yourself in this way
  • Set a phone alarm, or an Evernote alarm, or some other sort of digital alarm 6 months into the future,
  • Make sure the weekly emails from Leading by Adventure appear in your inbox. Sort out the issues if they don’t. And promise yourself to ALWAYS open them
  • Set yourself review points, where you can be honest about whether you are maintaining your commitment to develop yourself
  • Select an friend to keep you real – set an appointment in their calendar

 

Image representing a spiritual outlook across a stony beach

Spirituality

by
Spirituality Definition by Aboriginal Australian Adrian Tucker - set on a picture of the moon by IPICGR via PixabayProbably the most helpful definition of spirituality I have encountered came from an aboriginal Australian, Adrian Tucker, who describes it in the words on the right.
The awareness to which it refers is something beyond the purely intellectual. It is experienced more as an emotion, a feeling, a connection.
This experience feeds our creativity, our intuition, our hope, our love. It makes our view of the world brighter, sharper, and engages us in transforming it – in co-creating it into its potential.
Metaphor for spirituality - man looking at sunrise across a lake - courtesy vinicius via pexelsIt is a form of truth beyond the rational, one that we can find in a song, a poem, a painting, a beautiful sunrise, or a smile. It makes our heart leap, our spirit soar, and gives us a new sense of being fully alive. And it enables us to be our best. To live up to our potential. To bless and inspire others. And to change the World.
Spirituality is about tapping into our connection with what is yet to be. Connecting reality and imagination. Co-creating the World. Accessing hope in faith that it will deliver.

a sense of what is yet to be

Creativity is a very spiritual act. Whether that is expressed in influencing images, writing, concepts or patterns of activity. Creativity changes our relationship with the way the world is and might be. Dolphin in bottle metaphor for Creativity reshaping the world around us courtesy comfreak via pixabayIt is about moving beyond the confines of our situation and tapping into things we do not fully understand. In doing so, it reshapes the world around us.
The joy that we feel in our spirit when that happens is a spiritual reaction to what we are doing – a connectedness with something bigger and more enduring than our physical selves
Equation on blackboard courtesy Geralt via PixabayScience can partially describe and interpret how this happens, but it neither defines or constrains what it might ultimately prove to be. Equally religion may allow us to glimpse more of its character, but it is still ‘seeing through a glass darkly’ and, at a purely rational level is limited to the vocabulary we have available to us. But when we tap into this power, our own spirit experiences something beyond the language that we have to describe it, and we are uplifted and elevated by the experience.

something beyond the language that we have to describe it

For me, as a Christian, that experience I interpret as a connection with God. But the God I believe in fights (and dies) for free will, and therefore I vehemently uphold that everyone should be allowed to arrive at their own interpretation.
Whatever YOUR interpretation, hopefully it will not detract from that wonderful feeling of being a human fully alive that is open to all of us in this spiritual creative space. For in this space lies the answers to resolving the stressful burdens around you and protecting your mind from the stresses that might otherwise overwhelm it.
Picture of hands in prayer - prayer for all faiths and none

Prayer for all faiths and none!

by

Picture of hands in prayer - prayer for all faiths and noneWhy Pray?
Who’s Listening?

Well, yourself for one! And, frankly, that alone can make a big difference. Occasional times of prayer can do a lot for our peace of mind.

Simply finding the words to voice our situation and desires in our head can help settle our thinking. It can help us work things through, and arrive at decisions. And it can help reduce anxiety and depression. And, even if we are the only one listening, talking to ourselves often helps.

But the fact is, we may not be the only one listening. Prayer changes things, not just in us, but also in those around us. Maybe not massively, but often just enough. Just enough to take another step forward, to see an alternative, to make a connection.

How this happens maybe not as important as that it happens. On one hand, it could simply be that a change in us influences a change in others, or that a change in us provides fresh perspectives or reserves.

On the other hand, there could be connections and influences at work that science has not yet discovered. Even the influence of (as I believe) God. But, whatever your reasoning, whoever you think is or is not listening, it doesn’t really matter. People from a wide range of perspectives who use prayer find that it helps. And at this time of increasing uncertainty, complexity and stress in our lives, we could really use that help.

So, if you are not used to prayer, how might you try it out? Or if your experience of prayer has been restricted to an unfulfilling ‘eyes closed – hands together – recite a list’, what could you do differently?

Here we run through the what, why, where, when, how and who of open prayer …

What is prayer …

Prayer is simply a sincere expression of your heart. It is about deliberately taking time out to express and understand your true emotions about yourself and the world around you – good and bad. Using words, sentences, even written patterns (silently or vocally) can help, providing they remain fully connected with your emotions.

Depending on our situation, our emotions may begin with fear, sadness, resentment, even despair. Wherever our emotions begin, that is where our prayers should start. But, it is psychologically important that they end with a request for how you want things to be different. That they include your hope for what might be, and your gratitude for past and current progress; for good things, or for the bad that hasn’t happened.

Why pray …

At the very least, prayer can provide moments of peace, tranquility and reflection, and these are much needed in our typically busy lives. But, more than this, it gives us checkpoints to take back control of our identity – our ‘being’ amidst our ‘doing’ – who we really are and who we want to be.

In this way, it can help us be our best version of ourselves as we deal with what is happening within us and around us. It can help us be a bit clearer on the path to the outcomes we seek, and to be ready with a thought out response to things, rather than react to them in the moment.

Where and when …

Clearly a quiet room somewhere is an obvious option, but it is not the only one. Furthermore, where we situate ourselves mentally can have little to do with where we are physically. Ideally we will find ourselves somewhere we feel at peace, undisturbed, and maybe inspired. If not physically, then maybe in our imaginations as we close our eyes.

As for when, it is whatever time and frequency best suits you. However, if you are able to do it at the start of the day, this can help better set you up for what lays ahead of you. It is also helpful to consider it whenever you feel you need some time and space during the day.

How …

PRAY conveniently forms a four-step acronym which provides a useful aide-memoire which helps us to ensure that our prayer time is productive: Pause; Reflect; Ask; Yield.

– Pause from your current mental and physical activities. Be still, and slow your breathing. Regather your scattered thoughts to: You; your place in the Universe; and, if appropriate, your presence before God.

– Reflect on how you are feeling at the moment throughout your body. ‘Talk’ silently within yourself about them and what is causing them. Be grateful for the good, and clear about the bad

– Ask clearly and specifically for however you want things to turn out for yourself and others. This helps build clarity and resolve within us for our influence on the outcome, and hope for the bigger picture.

– Yield yourself to whatever may emerge from all of this and your part in that. You can only be you. Others will be themselves. Reminding ourselves of this can help us better cope with what emerges.

Who to …

In terms of who we believe is listening to our prayers, who we are speaking to, that largely depends on whether we allow for a spiritual perspective on things. If you don’t, then we hope that the explanations above have been sufficient to convince you that speaking to yourself in prayer still has great value.

If, however, you do, then you probably already have a sense of where your words are going, and what you hope will emerge from them, and this can add an extra dimension to the power of your prayer.

If you are not sure? Well my own belief, based on my own prayers, is that God listens to every prayer, and loves us all equally. So you can always try that. From my own experience, when I did so, in deep respect, I found both a sense of peace and love, and real spoken answers. But it did take time to get there.

 

For more on mental wellbeing you might find the following useful: