Begin With The Bright Spots
When leaders and organizations begin to work with us, it is often because they have a problem they need to solve. Something is wrong, and that wrong thing is consuming an awful lot of time.
That is where we come in: through conversations, carefully crafted experiences that change the climate, and a creative approach to processes and people, we equip our clients to solve problems and do things with more purpose, passion and focus.
When we are asked to solve problems for organizations, the first question I ask is this:
What do you want?
This simple question, repeatedly asked, uncovers many things:
· Resistance: “What do I want? Let me tell you what I don’t want…” and out pours the frustration.
· The absence of vision. “I don’t know what I want.”
· A change in focus, “When I started this it was so clear, now I am not really sure.”
Over time, the answer begins to shift, and what begins to emerge is vision. Common purpose. Passionate commitment. Energy. The challenge then becomes harnessing and deploying that energy effectively.
Sometimes our question, “What do you want?” shows leaders where the broken places are:
· “I don’t know what the end game is. It isn’t clear to me what we are trying to accomplish in the big picture, so I don’t know what I want because I don’t know what will contribute.”
· “What I want is to be able to do my job well and execute effectively the work we are charged to accomplish.”
· “I want us all to be on the same page.”
Whatever “it” is, asking this simple question begins to reveal what is working and what isn’t in the organization. It also uncovers something about the people in the room: their current level of willingness and abilities begin to emerge. We have a place to start.
The place I like to begin any engagement is with the Bright Spots.
Ø What is working?
Ø What is going well?
Ø Where is the strength and energy?
It is from this place that people can begin to see what is possible. What can be created.
When we begin a conversation from a place of strength and success, people are more able to tap into creative solutions to the issues and obstacles before them. Success begins with a success mindset: we map our way from here to there with the guideposts of what is working, where our strengths lie, and how we can solve the problems before us with the assets, learning and lessons we are gathering today.
A destination can begin to be charted.
To begin to map your next moves around the challenges that are arising in your organization start by asking:
Ø What do we want?
Ø What is working?
Ø What is going well?
Ø Where is the strength and energy?
With this inventory of what you have, you will be more aware of what and how to harness and deploy your best abilities and tools as you move toward your destination.
Mapping our successes and our desired outcomes builds something essential into the climate of our teams. It builds trust and resilience.
The problems and pitfalls that lie before us are best solved with our collective creativity and a common resolve. “What do you want?” is the place to begin. It creates the space for the deeper, tougher, more challenging questions that follow.
What do you want? What do you really want?
How can the choices and challenges before you lead you there?
