07 Jun Desire to Inspire?
6 Tips that Will Change Everything
The work environment is changing. Suddenly different attributes are requested for on demand creativity and lateral thinking. But our educational and training system rewards the one who adheres the regulations and not the one who is brave enough to dare the impossible.
The yesterday prescriptions do not fit anymore. Innovation never emerges from plans and structures, rather from experiments and so called random errors. So, what is needed in business and in human resource development to meet the future challenges and to inspire others?
- Be interested in something total different
We have been told to get the things we do right. We have been trained to do what other people do, and to simply do it better. We have been told to use the normal management tools like goalsetting, delegation, reviews etc. as if there was nothing on top. We have not been encouraged to extrapolate and come up with something that did not exist before. Extrapolators are people who see ten different possibilities. They get ten different images of something that is possible and put pieces from all together to create something new. Extrapolation is the way progress occurs.
If you truly wish to create something different, you have to do it from a different position. It´s not about doing the same thing differently – it´s about doing something different. Differently is a sort of changing what already exits. Different is another universe.
Ask yourself: “What can I be or do different, that if I would be or do different, would allow me to get rid of it all the ‘I should’ and ‘I can´t’ and would open a space for creativity beyond limits?”
Don´t look for an answer right now. If you ask this question daily something different will show up.
- Be the catalyst for change
Gandhi said: “Be the change you would like to see in the world.” You could be the element of change that is required right now. Being the catalyst means that you´ll see how your interaction with people changes people. When you have allowance for others, it changes the world. The most effective change and influence you could instill is by asking questions that no one else does. When you would like to develop employees to get access to their full potential you could ask questions like:
- How much more are you than you think you are, that you are refusing to perceive, know, be and receive?
- What have you decided you can´t do or have that´s creating the limitation in using your capacities?
When you would like to influence a meeting, a project or any situation you could ask:
- “What has to change here to succeed beyond our expectations?”
- “What question could we ask that would give us more clarity about this subject?”
- “What new reality could we create that we refuse to see?”
Be curious about what that change that could be! You would have to choose to recognize that you count and that you are aware enough to create change. Are you willing to claim, own and acknowledge that?
- Be without fixed points of view
A point of view is a position from which something is observed. It´s a particular way of looking at something. When you say: “He is so…”, or “It is like it is…”, or “We always do it like this because it was or is functioning well”, or “He/she will never change” then you have fixed points of view. This is where you create a limitation because you cannot be aware of any other choice, possibility or contribution. This is the place where you can get stuck in developing others.
Ask yourself: What could I be aware of that I don´t be aware of?
- Be the question
The purpose of a question is to expand awareness, not to get an answer as we are used to. It is a step towards becoming aware of possibilities.
Normally leaders in all positions force themselves to have all the answers. That leads to a bottleneck within a company because employees are disenabled on one hand and on the other they are held responsible for specific things without having full responsibility.
You don’t want to have the answer. You want to be the question. When you are being the question you are in a state of constant curiosity.
You ask: “What else is possible?” Curiosity is expansive. You have no conclusion. You don’t want to get the “right” answer or give the “right“ answer. You ask questions to empower others to find their own way of being or doing what they are able to be or do.
- Be the creator of tomorrow
What future are you capable of that you don´t even know you are capable of? What creates the future? Your choice creates the future.
You make a choice today and your future gets created by your choice. Each choice creates a lot of possibilities. From those possibilities you again have at least ten more choices. And so on. You have to choose. Every day again and again. It´s not something that is finished or complete like people with a start-and stall-system which means working like crazy and then doing nothing. Creating your life, your business and your relationship is something ongoing. Don´t ask: “What do I need to complete today?” Rather, ask yourself,
- What else do I have to do today?
- What else can be created beyond this?
- Which one of these choices is going to create what I/we want to have?
- Be the one who breaks the rules
- Always look for ways that no one would have the courage to look at.
- Go over the structures which are normal.
- Don´t buy the story that other people are telling you of what is possible and what is not.
- Use every “problem“ as a new possibility.
- Acknowledge yourself and what you are capable of being and doing every single day.
- Don’t be a maybe – there are already more than enough of them.
