Balloon

We can imagine being kids and playing a game with an inflated balloon. We use our hands and other appendages to keep the balloon suspended and discourage it from falling to the floor. It is a joyful memory.

What if we took the balloon’s perspective, directed upwards at random intervals, and had our journey impacted by a whimsical outside force?

Some enterprises are encountering the sensation of the balloon. They are reacting to unpredictable inputs from external sources. Funders, granters, board members, peers, state and government policies, communities, and society’s priorities are shifting rapidly.

How are you keeping stable when the certainty of staying afloat is tenuous? How do you thrive when remaining in the game is the primary focus?

Vista

It can be rewarding to arrive at an overlook or a lake shore that provides an expansive view. If we have been navigating paths that have restricted our ability to assess the surrounding landscape, an open area offers solace. This is often why we might take a break in such an area. It calms our primitive mind on the lookout for danger and allows us to reflect and project.

How might we use this approach in our own work? What moments of overlook provide a new mindset and allow us to access unique reflections?

Choices

I consistently rely on Simon Sinek’s work to add depth and dimension to conversations in many settings. Seat mates on airplanes to professional consulting engagements receive some mention of Simon’s frameworks.

Two assessment points come to mind when evaluating intentions. First, does the enterprise embed its core values into its work without fail? Second, are the choices made consistent with the story it is telling?

Watching and listening to the things that matter can tell us a lot about a cause’s status.

Off the Map

What if you started your next planning session by adopting four mindsets? How would your approach be different if you took a playful and irresponsible approach? What does a serious irresponsible process reveal? By taking on mindsets that are not typical in our practice, we open up conversations that inhabit our blind spots.

Managing Numbers or Leading People

When your priority is managing numbers, inputs on a spreadsheet are all that are required. If you lead people, you must prioritize a human-centered approach and balance resources. One is easy, but the results are not visible until the numbers equate to human action. The other is more challenging but builds trust and loyalty, which means people deliver more than the resources provided.

Your choice.

Choir Holding an Impossible Note

I read a social media post that I cannot relocate, suggesting that what allows a choir to hold a note for an impossibly long time is that each singer can drop out and take a breath before resuming. As long as breaths are interspaced so they do not all overlap, the audience hears a consistent note, and the choir members achieve their goal of performing the music as composed.

The author took the choir analogy to discuss social activism and that volunteers and teams can achieve constant pressure if they act and then take a break as long as other individuals are committed to the process. The totality of overlapping efforts is not being ‘always on’ but rather being ‘in the game.’ The phrase ‘fight forward’ has been a guiding mantra for many social sector organizations. We cannot fight back against all the events that have transpired, but we can fight forward. We can be engaged in creating the best version of ourselves and our community while recognizing that our past versions have left room for improvement.

Battleship Strategic Planning

If your strategic planning attempt reflects playing the strategy game Battleship, then the prospects of success are limited. The possibilities of arranging the ships on the board are vast. This is akin to selecting the strategies and goals in a traditional plan. Then, we must start guessing in some methodical or random order to hit the correct positions and create an impact. The calculations behind the probability are significant.

There are a surprisingly large number of ways that the ships could be arranged: for example, a blank board with the usual 5 ships has 30,093,975,536 possible configurations. Source C.Liam Brown

Credit

What if we adopted a more durable approach? What if our goal was not to ‘win’ strategic planning but to remain in the game (and mindset) of planning and amending. What if the act of thinking strategically was a sign of progress? What if we collaborated with others instead of playing in a silo? What if we relied on others to succeed so that we could thrive?

Unless You’d Rather Stay, Of Course

Hagrid offers Harry Potter two choices: to follow him to enroll in Hogwarts or to stay with the Dursley family. The story (and film franchise) would have been very different if Harry had chosen to stay with the Dursleys.

We are presented with the same opportunity daily. Although the magnitude of our decisions might differ daily, we can stay or go.

How do you approach ‘unless you’d rather stay’ options?