When are our attempts to set others up for success redundant? Where should we allow for serendipity? How might we frame an opportunity without announcing the ‘moving sidewalk is ending, prepare to step forward?’ Do we need to sign every vantage point and are the moments that have been scripted as remarkable os those we encounter unexpectedly?
How might we allow for wayfinding without providing every adventurer the same script? Even the Wizard of Oz’s Yellow Brink Road presented numerous unexpected side quests.
As social sector enterprises, many of us work on the frontier. We address problems so big, complex, under-represented, or unique that business has seen limited ways to monetize a return on investment. So, we work at the edges of the map, cobbling together resources, scouting the landscape, engaging those with news from different geographies and cultures. It is not an romantic endeavor but a commitment of community. We invest, partner, fail, endure, and succeed.
How might we learn from the leading practices of a frontier mindset? How might we correct course before we adopt a perspective that we are first to encounter the challenge and there is only one approach to move forward? How might we set other up for success and be of service?
Unless we are hooked-up to an old fashion party-line where one landline served multiple parties, it is unlikely we are hearing all communications and perspectives. One of the great joys is meeting another person who sees the world in a profoundly different manner and alters our world view. It may be as simple suggestion that changes a subtle routine or it might be as grand as reformatting a universal truth.
The mindset that we have heard it all is limiting. If we gather with like-minded people to discuss new ways if thinking, we miss insights that individuals with weak ties to our cause might offer.
Sometimes we need to look at our inputs before we can adjust our output.
Why do we schedule organizational retreats? Why must we gather in a different location to think differently? Why do we hire facilitators to guide the process? Why do we assemble differently?
Why did we go on field trips during our school years? Why was a field trip a remarkable moment during our academic journey?
We need space to assume a different mindset as we rarely plan effectively when we are in routine. If we seek to engage secondary and peripheral ideas and considerations, we must be willing to get lost in the wilderness. If we have our Magnetic North compass (articulation of purpose, vision, mission, and values), we will find our way and add dimension and depth to the space we occupy.
How might we intentionally make space to get lost so we might engage our wayfinding skills? We do not retreat to predict the future (anyone have world pandemic written into their strategic plan) but rather to prepare for the terrain that might lay ahead?
To be empathetic, we need space for reflection and connection. If there are distractions, fear, chaos, alarm, or unsettling mindsets, we are unable to access empathy. Much of our current discourse during the pandemic has diminished the space required for us to see the humanity in each other. If we are consumed with endless distractions, we drift further away from a human-centered approach. We lose curiosity and adopt a snap judgement approach.
How might we consistently develop practices that generate space and curiosity? How might our reflections allow us to ask ‘what else might this be,’ when we encounter events and information that might be triggering? How might we recognize that the path others are traveling might be more challenging or require more of their resources than we might assume? How might we set each other up for success?
How we might realize that we are encountering others in the construction phase? We might not be seeing the final product.
How might we get the right amount of exposure to capture both the focal point and the background? It is often the elements that are not in focus that make the image remarkable.
I recently toured the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies and the exhibit of photographer John E. Marriott. I found his wildlife images to be striking. His ability to use the camera as a vehicle to transport, to engage, humor, and amaze is uncanny. The photographic story he tells is more complex that putting wildlife in the center of the frame. There is a tension, emotion, complexity, and depth to each print. How might we add a similar amount of care to our art? How might we not mistake exposure for connection?
When we view an image, what assumptions do we make? What mindset do we assume? Does it alter our mood and influence our emotions? Is there a standard narrative that comes to mind? Do we experience FOMO (fear of missing out) or JOMO (joy of missing out)?
Do we select certain images to inspire or create fear? Are we hoping our tribe will activate, take action, become more aware, or lend their social influence?
What assumptions are we making when we curate the message? What assumptions our our fans making about the stories we share? How much is based on trust and how much is the work of creative editing?
Is there a difference between working on versus working towards? Working on feels like I am engaged in the work that matters. Working towards provides a sense that there is ground between me and the work that matters.
Is it similar to a river viewed in different seasons? We are working on the river when it is flowing. We are working towards when we travel on its frozen surface.
Both journeys matter but the terrain we have to navigate is different.
Damming the Columbia River solved a number of problems. It reduced seasonal flooding, allowed agriculture to prosper, generated hydroelectric power, and was a catalyst for local communities to prosper. It also created problems. The dams altered the ecosystem and hydrology of a major watershed, it introduced crops that might not have propsered, obstructed salmon and sturgeon from returning to their breeding grounds without human intervention, and generated inexpensive electricity which delayed investments in other forms of sustainable energy.
Some would classify the Columbia River Dams as one of the great engineering and economic successes of the Twentieth Century in the United States. Others might define the complex as one of the most significant environmental disasters created by humankind.Politicians, citizens, environmental groups, and government agencies are still debating the merits and fate of the dams.
I might be helpful to frame our problem-solving with the mindset that we are both solving and creating in the same act. We should not stop aspiring to be a force for good but we might benefit from recognizing our solution will be somebody else’s obstacle.
What-if-concepts 