mindset

Designed and Adopted

When did current design become the adopted expectation? How much resistance must we overcome to achieve the next iteration? How much external force act as a catalyst? Does disruption accelerate new ways of thinking?

If you are an airport or airlines, the ability to make significant changes occurs on a large scale and requires numerous resources. Often, we are still in start-up mode and nimble enough to adjust quickly but we assume the mindset of working on a global scale.

It Can Wait Until the Meeting

What discussion and opportunities have you missed because they were postponed until the next meeting or there was not time on the agenda? What might have happened if the moment of creativity and insight was allowed to take flight in real-time? If all our actions are captured on a schedule, then when does ‘be remarkable’ appear in writing on our calendar? Perhaps we have the inspiration, strength, endurance, or ideal conditions to tackle the crux move today. What if we embraced the dynamic, now?

Thanks for the reminder Seth Godin.

Location

Most Saguaros cactus do not have golf balls embedded in their arms. However, those that reside within a golf course are inclined to collect a few errant shots. I have been in many conversations where a social sector cause wishes to attract a sensational feature or benefit, perhaps a billionaire philanthropist who takes interest in supporting the enterprise with untold generosity. However, if we are not in a billionaire’s mindset, then perhaps we are like a cactus in the wild trying to catch golf balls. Embrace our respective geographies, we are remarkable for existing within the landscape we occupy.

Fence Lines

‘Good fences make good neighbors,’ penned Robert Frost in his poem the Mending Wall. Fences are visible demarcations of boundaries. Either to keep things in or keep things out, depending on our perspective. The lifecycle of a fence is fascinating. Newly constructed fences with upturned soil where fresh posts were recently driven, creating unnatural scars across the landscape, until the new boundary becomes part of our unconscious memory of the landscape. There are untended fences with missing pieces, abandoned fences with silhouettes of their former connections, mended fences with visible repairs and temporary structural scaffolding, and temporary fences, constructed for real-time assistance and deconstructed overnight.

I encountered a line of fence this winter where the fence posts remain, a 4-wheel track on one side and a single track on the other side. The abandoned and loose barb wire had been collected, coiled, and piled safely away from the trails. Yet, the pattern of travel remained, out of habit we dared not cross between the two paths midway down the fence line. A reminder that even after we remove the obstacles tha prevented different ways of travel, mindsets and behaviors will endure.

Just because the fence no longer exists, it may take a new generation of users to blaze a fresh path.

Confrontations vs Conversations

If we call out an obscenity (expletive delete) at somebody, we are seeking a confrontation. It takes little effort to shout out a demeaning term and leaves few viable response options. If we say, ‘I do not agree with your choice,’ we open a dialogue. The other party might respond with a questions and we can clarify what actions are not agreeable.

Are we trying to start confrontations or conversations? Shouting obscenities might feel good in the moment but they are a lazy form of communication. Acknowledging that something does not resonate but leaving room for interpretation requires a different mindset.

If we want a fight, slander away. If we want to engage and learn, be curious about different perspectives.

Perspective

If we have confidence in the future, we can rely on data and numbers to guide our decision-making. If the future is ambiguous, we are better served by employing creativity and wayfinding. Numbers become irrelevant if we do not posses a map and the destination is uncertain. Fantasy sports leagues work because we can agree on what to measure and how to determine the winner. Predicting what to track in a box score for 2021 is less certain. Based on the number of trips I had pre-booked in 2020, prior to the pandemic, I was was planning the wrong course of action. The reality of the world I encountered required a pivot to a new perspective.

How are you planning for 2021? Are you using a fixed mindset and goals linked to data? Are you approaching it with an open-mindset with flexible goals? Are your objectives tangible or experience based? Are you employing a scorecard or a human-centered approach?

We can be presented with new scenarios in seconds. Our focus shifts to a new reality, with different rules, and altered outcomes. In the words of Don Cheadle’s character Cash in the movie Family Man, “Well, you’re working on a new deal now baby.”

Observation Point

To gain a useful perspective, we might benefit by standing back from the heart of our focal point. Even if we climb the highest spire in the center of the mountain range, we may miss the opportunity to assess how each peak and valley are connected.

When working with consulting clients, the ideas that resonate the strongest are the concepts that the client develops, not points that I share. My greatest contribution is to get the team to the right vantage point and encourage them assess the landscape. Creating a mindset that starting from the observation deck is actually the work that matters before one can start the climb.