Staying Alive

I’m riffing some ideas here based on the four themes we’ve been exploring for Creative Leadership:

Having bolder conversations
Connecting more deeply
Engaging the resistance
Staying alive

To continue doing what you have always done is the easy part, it’s when you want to try something new, something fresh, maybe even unproven, that we enter tricky territory. This is really important for me when I’m facilitating. I have many approaches that work, and I’m not about to throw them out. But sometimes it’s good to try something new, to refresh. The only way I’ve found to discover if something works is to try it. And here’s the rub. Not everything works. Not the first time, not every time.

Trying new things, even when I don’t know how to do them, is how I learn new things, and discover stuff about myself. It helps keep my work fresh and interesting, for me, and for others.

Taming the voice in your own head telling you not to try something new or different is hard enough, imagine what it’s like to try and encourage others? It can be a real nightmare, knowing how far to push – too little and there’s not enough challenge or encouragement; too much and people are frightened off.

I’m looking forward to discovering new ways of staying alive when I’m in UK this August, especially at our leadership workshop in Cambridge, August 31 – Sept 2.