“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.
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.