This morning I took my dog to the park. Walking back, I prepared to discard the dog bag into the trash bin but it was gone. There had been a music concert at the park last night; perhaps somebody had moved the trash can closer to the venue. My morning routine was disrupted, and my mindset changed. Where was the closest trash can? Why was our corner trash can missing? Who else was having a pattern disruption?

Some routines are disrupted by external forces, and some by internal choices. How might we disrupt our own patterns to challenge our status quo? How might a break in routine create new ways of thinking or confirm our current course of action? Emergency service and para-military groups perform pattern disruptions by running unscheduled drills. They move from a state of normal to a response posture with the sound of an alarm.

Quick starting points for a change to routine include moving your next meeting to a different venue, changing the agenda order, asking attendees to sit in a different seat, inviting a guest speaker, providing a report with different metrics, canceling a regular meeting to see the impact, and starting the meeting with a generative question.

How do you change your routine? What has forced you to change patterns?