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

Leading Adventure in Others

“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 someone timidly stepping onto rickety bridge - metaphor for tapping intuition

#019 – Clues in Timidity – Tapping Intuition

Tap into your intuition and use it to ensure a more secure footing – Use your subconscious to check whether your conscious has the whole picture

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Benefits of tapping into your intuition

Why take this challenge?

Access deeper levels of wisdom within yourself

Increase your success rate by recognising and avoiding issues in advance

Develop the skills of your team in predicting the future

 

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

It is a little known fact, but it turns out that most project failures could have been foreseen before they launched. The article ‘Using intuition to predict the future’ tells of a study of failed projects across a wide range of businesses.

The study was undertaken by a large consultancy firm. The interviewers asked those who had been involved a very insightful question. They asked whether, at the point of launch, people would have bet $500 of their own money on the project’s success. And overwhelmingly the answer was ‘no’.

It turns out that, after we have applied all of our logic in planning success, there is still an emotional component within us which has more to tell us. A subconscious sense which assesses things that are too complex and involved and uncertain for factual assessment. One that doesn’t return its answers in words and numbers. But in a sense of discomfort, or disquiet, that is highlighted when we are asked to ‘bet our own money’.

This week’s adventure is all about tapping into that intuition.

 

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 Whale Bones at Whitby - as symbol for fishbone diagram cause and effect

#018 – Diagnostic Bones – Fishbone Diagrams

Look deeper than what at first appears; help your team solve issues at their rootPicture of Whale Bones at Whitby - as symbol for fishbone diagram cause and effect - Source: Tim Hill via Pixabay

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The benefits of using Fishbone diagrams (Ishikawa diagrams) to gain insight into causality

Why take this challenge?

Solve problems once and for all

Resolve long term and recurring issues

Build your team’s understanding of causality

 

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

Developed in 1982 by Kaoru Ishikawa, the Fishbone Diagram (so-called because of its shape) is one of the most useful mechanisms for a team of people to systematically solve the problems they are facing. It helps people move beyond pet theories, simplistic explanations and blame. It uses structured creativity to broaden their view and develop a richer picture of causality – one that is more likely to contain the real issue(s) and new insights.

Like all management methods from Japan at that time, it is both simple and collaborative: Bringing people together to share deeper insight and understanding. And yet, in that simplicity lies a surprising power to reach past division, to educate, and to bond people in finding a way forward.

And despite its power and its popularity, it is now increasingly common to find people who have never used them, at least not within the last decade.
So the adventure this week, for you and your team, is to get out those bones, and remind yourself of how useful they can be.

 

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:

 

Glass orb image of doodling to access intuition

#001 – Doodle Your Adventure

(Re)Discover the practice of doodling; Engage more of your body in thinking and learning; Generate glimpses into the wisdom and insight of your subconscious

Why take this challenge?

To strengthen the connection between our heart and our imagination and see what emerges for us.

To practice doodling as a means of subconscious expression.

Our own ‘art’ no matter how poorly rendered, has the ability to connect us with things our rational mind suppresses. The purpose of this exercise is to challenge ourselves to step off the rational path (just for a moment) and look through the mists at things hidden in the background.

 

We are going to ‘practice’ some doodling. Contrary to what you may have been told in the past, doodling can be a productive way of paying attention. At a minimum, it is a way of remaining engaged in situations where you might otherwise ‘zone out’ from the content. But it is also a way of engaging more of your brain in what is going on – as described in Sunni Brown’s TED talk. It can tap into aspects of the unconscious mind in the form of metaphor or creative expression.

 

You may find the following TED Talks helpful to listen to as you develop your doodling practice

Nippun Mehta on open heartedness
Chris Bailey on focus
David Brooks on eulogy
Daniel Goleman on compassion
Shawn Achor on better work

 

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.

Useful links:

 

Playing at work! Seriously?

Post intentionally hidden from search engines 15/12/2022 (covered in Clrgo.com)

 

The toy, Lego, can provide surprising insights into you, your work and your relationships. 

Over the last two months I have been reading and listening to a lot of stuff about what makes us who we are, and the conclusion I am being drawn to is that, for most of us, we are not who we think we are. 

Our identity is tied up in stories; multiple stories which we tell ourselves; a flow of narrative which leads to and flows from the current moment, and to a large part determines how we feel about what we are doing right now. Those stories may be short or long, they may originate from us or from others, they may be in conflict or harmony, and most of the time we may not be fully aware of them. 

And some of them are the truth, and some of them are lies, and some of them are both in different circumstances. And we pick which ones we believe (not always consciously or consistently) and they determine not only our effectiveness, but also how we feel about our performance and our situation.

I say ‘not always consciously’ because a lot of this takes place in our subconscious. Most of what is going on in our heads is happening without us being in control of it, and yet it is making associations, feeding our attitudes, responding to cues, suggesting motives, and preparing us – all based on whatever narratives it is currently using.

But if we are not aware of this, how do we know that it is equipping us with the best narrative to do what we are wanting to do? The answer, for most of us, most of the time, is we don’t! And it isn’t! 

In many cases, particularly in respect of relationships with others (business or otherwise) we find ourselves all too easily doing, saying, and feeling things that are not particularly helpful to us or to them – particularly in tense or difficult situations. And as a result, opportunities, time and resource get wasted.

So how do we fix this?

Well first of all, this is not a quick fix – it takes time. But that time can be enjoyable, insightful, and empowering. And it can yield benefits right from the outset. 

Secondly, working on it is not like working on other things in our lives. Our subconscious is an alien space and it uses a different language to the ones we are used to speaking. 

As a result, working with the subconscious involves doing things that our conscious might deem as silly or weird – like playing with Lego. Seriously.

Lego (R) Serious Play (R) or LSP, for brevity and avoidance of the the legal symbols, was a technique developed at the Lego group in the mid-nineties and made open-source in 2010. It is designed to access the metaphors that operate in our subconscious, and enable us to better work together on a shared vision or enterprise. 

At an individual level, it enables people to see things in themselves that can surprise them; to unearth important facets of their narrative, and to work on them to bring about changes which can make us more effective, individually and together. It can surface metaphors that are important to us, and enable us to better examine them, and reassess their place (and their limits) in our story. 

Whether by LSP, or by means of other Therapies, if you are blessed enough to have the opportunity to work on your own subconscious. I encourage you to take it (or even seek it out). It is not just for those with mental health issues, it is also for those with mental health who want to retain it. 

The world is getting more and more complex, routine is being automated, things are moving ever faster, and relationships are increasingly key. Looking after our mental health so that it equips us with what we need to make the best of this emerging future is key, and I am increasingly convinced that a better grasp of our subconscious will enrich all our lives.  

In these days of data protection, when we can ask any organisation to reveal the picture it has of us, particularly where it might lead them to make decisions which are not in our interest, perhaps our most productive course of action could be to start within our own minds.