Bend and Break and Recreate

If you're not getting the results you want, try breaking - or at least bending - the rules that guide your typical approach.

For example,

Don't immerse yourself in a stubborn challenge. Distance yourself from it.

Creating physical or psychological distance can help us find creative solutions, by changing how we mentally represent things. Distancing from a time (projecting the challenge into the future) or probability (assuming success is more or less likely) perspective can also increase creative thinking.

Learn more about how psychological distance impacts creativity here.

Don't work to understand the challenge. Work to understand the context.

Design thinking helps would-be problem solvers avoid solving the wrong problem by immersing themselves in the world of the user before defining the problem to solve. Reading context clues and observing interactions within the environment can uncover more powerful needs.

Find resources and references for designing discovery strategies here.

Don't meet or exceed expectations. Recreate them.

If you want more of the same, keep doing and thinking what you're doing and thinking. Not everything needs to change. But if you want different results, consider ways to crack open new possibilities here.

At COMPIO, we have been busy prototyping new ways to deliver our services. Stay tuned for updates on what we're learning as we bend and break the rules that have guided our approaches.

Your Priorities Are Showing

There's a difference between forced-ranking and prioritizing.

Forced ranking is reactive, "With everything there is to do, what to do first?"

Priorities are pro-active; they're what you attend to while everything else waits.

To understand today's priorities, notice where you spend most of your time.

While you're busy with these things, you're setting aside other things.

Moving forward, ask yourself:

• How do I define success? This is a good question to revisit regularly.

• What am I doing that is getting in the way of my version of success? Find ways to stop doing these things, or do less of them.

• What will I do instead, to achieve more of this success? A priority is something you do, not something you intend. If you're not doing it, it's not a priority.

Your priorities shape your success. There's no need for a priorities list - what you do, and don't do, is shouting out what is important to you.

QuestionAble

When you need a better answer, turn your question on its head.

In other words, create your own version of a Sky Planter :








When you change your focus

from "How to find a job?"
to "How to make it easy for a job to find me?"

or

from "How to use social networking"
to "How to network our various social groups?"

or even

from "How to build a better Swiss army knife?"
to "What could a Swiss army knife be used to build?"

you create a shift that creates new ideas.

So when you get stuck:

- List as many questions as you can about your issue.
- Twist these questions.
- And answer your twisted questions until the ideas start flowing again.

Can You See It?

Want to make your next presentation even more engaging and memorable?

Create your slide deck using pictures... only pictures.




Select a series of images that illustrate your point

(this will also help you focus your message).







Sequence the images so they tell a story.

And, as you speak, let the images carry your audience

from where they are

to where you want to take them.


Imagery kindles emotions, imagination and personal connections.

Your audience will be more engaged during your talk,

and remember the experience longer after they leave.


To play with this idea, you can:

- Watch National Geographic's David Griffin use this approach.

- Find free images at Wikimedia Commons and Google Images.

- Read Presentation Zen.

Uniquely Effective

"You are all unique and special, just like everyone else."
- Margaret Mead, anthropologist

Want to become even more effective?

Get very clear about how well today's work aligns with

• What you know you do best - the things that make you feel strong when you do them; and
• What matters most - the values and drivers that define "good work" for you; and
• The stressors that can push your buttons - triggering behaviors that derail your success.

How can you better understand your strengths, drivers and risks?

• Conduct an informal 360 feedback process, asking people who know you well to describe the most valuable things you do better than others, what they think keeps you motivated and productive, and what may be blind spots for you; or
• Do a self-audit, using a resource like the free Leadership Capital tool; or
• Complete a professional assessment and work with a coach to identify how your profile interacts with your goals.

What can you do once you're clear about your strengths, drivers and risks?

• Each week, spend a little more of your time on activities that use your strengths.
• Every day, work on responsibilities that relate to your interests and values.
• Over time, build habits that help you sidestep derailers while you bring more of your best to your work.

We each have the ability to be uniquely effective. The example we set can help others become so too.