mindset

So Close

If we miss an opportunity, are the ones where it is inches or seconds from success more challenging to absorb than the opportunities that closed miles or days before we reached the finish line? Our raffle ticket being one number off the winning number. We felt potential success until the final moment. A missed flight where the aircraft is sitting at the gate or a race when a medal is lost by tenths of second. Technically, these end in the same result but our ability to be approximate to our goal can change our mindset. It can motivate us or undermine our morale.

How might we embrace the the journey and experiences we encountered along the way that serve as fuel for our next adventure, regardless of the results? How might we recognize the journey is not over, even when the itinerary is altered?

Your Standards

When you work on a project, what are your standards? Is starting sufficient to meet your expectations? How about creating a beta version? What if the deliverable meets the customer’s expectations but you decided not to complete upgrades that will maximize performance? Where do you stop?

When you operate an airline, is getting the passenger from departure airport to arrival airport sufficient? When does passenger engagement begin and where does it stop? What interactions meet an airline’s standards during the journey? What is the promise you make?

There is a remarkable difference between delivering for the customer’s standard and our own standard? It is important to know which one we have prioritized.

Helpful or Unnecessary?

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.

Frontier

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?

Multiple Voices

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 and How We Retreat

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?

Empathy Needs Space

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.

Exposure

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?

Assumptions

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?