creativity

Unleashing Intuition through situational self-leadership

The Adventurer’s Guide to Unleashing Intuition

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Introduction:

In an era defined by rapid change and complex challenges, the ability to blend rational analysis with intuitive insight is more crucial than ever. Yet, many of us find ourselves trapped in the confines of our rational minds, not really trusting the creative and intuitive resources that lie just beneath the surface. However, the same models which enable us to develop and empower new people to safely take on greater responsibilities can also be used to enable our intuitive subconscious to take a more effective role in finding powerful solutions.

Navigating Complexity with a Balanced Mind

All around us, in business, in government, in social media, we’re constantly navigating an increasingly complex world. A world that has moved beyond our individual logical ability to make sense of it. A world where the consequences of relying on argument and opinion can be seen in increasing division, conflict and polarized debate. Where the temptation is to retreat into echo chambers which feed and reinforce a black and white rationale that belongs to a simpler world.

And this can be true of our own professional and personal lives, as much as it can the politics which govern our country. But the truth is, our greatest insights often emerge from the subconscious mind—those ‘Eureka’ moments that seem to come from nowhere. But how do we consistently tap into this well of creativity?

The Situational Leadership Model: A Guide for Personal Growth

The Situational Leadership model, developed by Hersey and Blanchard, which adapts leadership style based on the maturity and competence of the team, can surprisingly guide us in harmonizing our rational and intuitive selves. By viewing our conscious mind as the ‘leader’ and our subconscious mind as the ‘team member,’ we can embark on a transformative journey toward holistic decision-making.
In this way, we can adapt the model as follows.

The Four Phases of Inner Leadership

  1. Direct (Tell): Start by acknowledging the dominance of your rational mind. It’s your go-to for decision-making, but also the gatekeeper that often blocks the intuitive insights from your subconscious.
  2. Persuade (Sell): Begin to open up to your subconscious. Let it know that while the rational mind holds the reins, there’s room for the intuitive thoughts to surface. It’s about saying, “Show me what you’ve got,” and being open to the creativity that arises.
  3. Support (Coach): As your intuitive side starts showing its potential, learn to nurture it. Understand its strengths and how it complements your rational thought processes. This stage is about building a partnership between the two sides of your mind.
  4. Delegate (Empower): Finally, reach a stage where your rational and intuitive minds coexist in harmony, seamlessly switching roles to leverage each other’s strengths. This is the pinnacle of self-leadership, where you fully harness your inner genius.

Applying Situational Leadership Internally

  1. Acknowledge Your Growth Potential: Understand that engaging more with your creativity and intuition is a journey that starts with self-awareness and openness to internal dialogue.
  2. Embrace Challenges as Opportunities: Use everyday challenges as a training ground for your subconscious. Recognize that it’s like a muscle that needs to be exercised and strengthened over time.
  3. Constructive Collaboration: As your confidence in your intuitive side grows, actively seek ways for both halves of your mind to collaborate on real-world problems.
  4. Continuous Reflection and Development: Regularly review and refine how your rational and intuitive minds work together. Celebrate the successes and learn from the challenges.

Resources

The adventures in our adventure library are all about taking you to places that your rational mind would typically discount. The provide 50 week by week exercises to develop greater confidence in your intuitive capabilities.

Conclusion

In a professional landscape that values innovation and agility, mastering the art of situational self-leadership can be a game-changer. By fostering a dynamic partnership between our rational and intuitive minds, we unlock new dimensions of problem-solving and creativity. Let’s lead ourselves with the same wisdom and adaptability we strive to lead others, and embark on this journey of self-discovery to unlock the full potential of our inner genius.

More from Culturistics:

Daily re-restructuring for agility? How adaptive structures maximise agile engagement.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast – but what sort of strategy are you feeding it?
Facilitating mental wellbeing – The power of adventure in keeping our minds fit & healthy.
Patterns of collaborative excellence – Rediscovering the lost wisdom of design.
Prescient emotional knowledge management – do you have what it takes?
Image of boxer - metaphor for competing with yourself

#039 – Shadow Boxing – Competing with yourself

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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

 

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

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:

 

Picture of wisdom in human form

#037 – Wisdom – A word from the wise

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Broaden the insight and creativity of your team – Use TED wisdom to stretch your thinking

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

The benefits of wisdom sources

Why take this challenge?

Introduce regular wisdom sessions into your team meetings

Stimulate creativity through broad insight from loosely related fields

Encourage your team to share what interests them

 

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

There is masses of free wisdom available through the internet. The issue for most of us is sifting the nuggets of pure gold from the mega-masses that aren’t. One really good way of doing that is to find sites that are consistently good at providing quality, and one such site is TED.com.

The wisdom on TED ranges across a broad selection of topics, delivered eloquently in around 20 minutes by renowned experts in their field. One such talk (included in the Pack section below) is Tim Harford’s ‘A powerful way to unleash your natural creativity’. In it he explains how the greatest and most creative thinkers throughout time had interests in a wide range of disciplines.

As he puts it “It’s easier to think outside the box if you spend your time clambering from one box into another.” And this works also for us mere mortals; I too have found this fact to be true for me in my work.

 

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 leaping wildly - metaphor for intentional diversity

#034 – Going Wild – Intentional Diversity

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Bring your whole self to your work place – Make diversity matter in all of us

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The benefits of Intentional Diversity

Why take this challenge?

Be fully diverse and inclusive for a day

Explore how intentional diversity can release unexpected insights and opportunities in all of us

Build deeper relationships through greater appreciation of shared experiences in being

 

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

“To what extent do you feel comfortable in bringing your whole self to work?”

When I first heard this question asked, I was puzzled by it. After a while, I got it, but my mind began to conjure up an anarchistic dysfunctional parody of what the reality might be like. I mean, I am someone who seeks to talk regularly to Jesus, but I am pretty sure you don’t want that in your face all the time, do you?

Of course the fact is that we are all more sensitive than that, and the reality is likely to be far more pragmatic. But then, if we accommodate the needs of others, can we really ‘bring our whole self’ into any situation beyond those with the people we are most intimate?

And yet the question is more sophisticated than my initial interpretation of it. It asks “to what extent do you feel comfortable?”, and I confess, that if the situation required it, I feel comfortable.

Diversity needs to be more than just inertly holding diverse elements in an unchanged environment. More than our ability to give people the time and space to fit in with the prevailing culture’. Too blend in. And to belong. To deliver its full potential we need diversity to be intentional diversity.

 

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:

 

Picture of tree in mist with sun behind it reflecting a sense of mystery startpoints

#021 – Mystery Startpoints

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Massively increase your creative options for finding novel ways forward – Use Brutethink to give your brain a real workout in making new connections

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

Benefits of using mystery startpoints like Brutethink to stretch your imagination

Why take this challenge?

Move outside the invisible confines of our current thinking patterns

Develop techniques and skills to introduce radical new ideas to your work

Build a culture of more innovative working patterns and processes

 

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

Our brains are immensely powerful organs. But they are also correspondingly lazy. They like spending time in what they know and where they feel confident and comfortable. As a result they tend to get themselves into ruts, and to justify that by being very competent and confident in that rut.

Creativity, by its very nature, is about stepping out of the rut.

I caught a clip for a reality TV programme recently, with one of the judges expounding that ‘You can’t teach creativity’. The phrase and the tone annoyed me – it conveyed a sort of ‘you’ve either got it, like me, or you never will!’ arrogance. But, in a way, what she said is technically correct. You can’t teach it! And ‘you can’t teach it’ because we all have it. Even if statements like the example above make us believe we don’t. What we need to teach is the confidence to access it.

Developing that confidence can benefit immensely from creative tools. Our brains may be reluctant to find ways to climb out of their comfortable ruts. But if, by means of a simple tool, you place them a distance away from that rut, you will be surprised at the speed and pace they can make connections to get back into it. The thing is, that any way in is also a way out. And once seen, it cannot be unseen.

This is the premise behind the Brutethink technique which Michael Michalko describes on page 157 of his delightful Thinkertoys book. Take a word at random, and make connections between it and the means to resolve your current issue.

 

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:

 

Writing paper plane in a open sky as a metaphor for where words can transport you - verbal voyages

#013 – Verbal Voyages

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Only say ‘Yes, and …’ and see what new perspectives await you – Give your curiosity a serious workout today!Header gif of a writing paper plane in a open sky as a metaphor for where words can transport you - verbal voyages

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

Benefits of taking verbal voyages

Why take this challenge?

To practice plussing and develop the skills, language and reflexes of building on ideas

To explore the impact on people, situations and your own learning of sustaining the positive

To practice skills that challenge your team and help it grow in creativity and insight

 

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

I am grateful to Andy Denne for this week’s exercise. And I have to admit, it is going to be every bit as big a challenge on me as it will be on you.

You may have seen the film ‘Yes Day’ promoted recently, where two parents decide that for 24 yours they will only say ‘Yes’ and not ‘No’. Well this is not that, well not quite.

This is ‘yes’ day with responsibilities built in. It is ‘yes, and …’ day.  As in “Yes, and … to make that work effectively we need to find a way to … overcome this obstacle … or deal with these risks/consequences”. Not “No, because …”, nor even “Yes, but …” – For an entire 24 hours, only “Yes, and …”

“Yes and …” comes from the world improvisational comedy, but has great application to the world of business also. The challenge will be how quickly and creatively you can think about what else needs to happen to make what is suggested not only possible, but a good idea.

It is not about putting your reservations to one side, it is about embracing them and  turning them on their head to invite further creativity in how to deal with them. It is a really great skill set to have. It leads to new possibilities, innovation and adventure. It raises energy, grows ownership, and encourages vision and teamwork. It is about seeing and staying with possibilities long enough to fully explore their potential.

The interesting thing about human beings is that we mentally emphasise the downsides of new ideas. We see the risks many times faster and more clearly than we see the possibilities. And because of this we tend to write things off before we’ve had any real opportunity to fully explore their potential. We stifle innovation.

But innovation rarely comes as just one new idea. It usually needs a lot more smaller new ideas around it to make it work. And those supporting ideas take openness and a bit of time.

“Yes, and …” buys that time

So the challenge this week is to determine, to commit (because it does need resolve) to give “Yes, and …” a try. And to see where that takes you.

 

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:

 

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

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

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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 representing a spiritual outlook across a stony beach

Spirituality

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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.