Tag: Fear

Plans vs. Scenarios

September 4th, 2019
By definition, plans need a degree of anticipated stability to be of any use whatsoever.

That forecast stability is in rather short supply as I write this, not just in the UK as we go through a remarkable period of transformation, but pretty much everywhere across everything from climate to politics.

One of my “go to” reflection tools at times like this is the Cynefin framework:

I like it’s simplicity. Right now, it feels to me like we’re on the cusp of complex and chaotic.

There’s nothing to be worried about in that (worry, after all is a poor use of imagination. Fear has a purpose, worry just drains us)

It makes planning difficult though. We are best thinking in terms of scenarios- what might happen, and what signs would we expect to see if that scenario was coming about? It’s at the heart of agility- the ability to act on a combination of a minimum of evidence and finely tuned intuition.

It has to be grounded. Be cannot be agile in response to something that’s happened (it’s too late), so we have to be willing to take risks.

Risks have to be worth it. Something important enough to risk failure for. Something far more meaningful than just money. Something bigger than just us. Something that will still matter even if our part in it fails.

When we’re creating scenarios, that meaning has to be at the heart of it.

Otherwise, we’re just passing time.
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Tension

July 1st, 2019
There’s a space between what we’re doing now and what we’ll be doing next. Some of that gap we can measure in time, like the timing between two notes on a musical score.

Then there’s a more complex, nuanced version. The quality of what is happening in that space. The energy. The things that affect the nature of that change.

The combination of these two qualities – time, and nature- create a tension, an energy, between one beat and the next.

That tension cannot be measured, only sensed. To sense it, we need make space for it.

That tension is increasing. For any given time period, the change energy is increasing. The difference between 2020 and 2021 is likely to very different to that between 2018 and 2019.

The issues we are seeing are not isolated from each other. They will combine and morph into new forms in a similar way to viruses adapting to defeat antibiotics.

We need to pay attention to this liminal space in which these issues combine. If we pay attention only to the symptoms, we’ll miss the cause and if do that we are far more likely to be disadvantaged than energised.

Whatever time you put aside for reflection and research, double it.
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Clunky

June 3rd, 2019
When we watch a murmuration of starlings, or a salmon going upstream what we wonder at is their fluidity; the sheer joy of movement.

So why is it that most of our organisations are so clunky?

Admittedly, neither starlings nor salmon have large pre frontal cortex but maybe sometimes, that’s our problem. We over think, over analyse, and worry about failure.

The very best performers however do not. They have long ago internalised why they are doing what they are doing, with whom they are doing it and the environment in which they are doing it. Then they just get on with it; unencumbered.

We make ourselves clunky. By not being clear on why we’re doing what we are doing, and why it is important. By not making sure that we understand those with whom we’re doing it. By not making sure we understand our surroundings. By hanging on to our original plan even when we know it’s not working. By not doing the work needed to prepare.

We don’t have to be clunky, but it’s hard work.
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Tag: Fear

Plans vs. Scenarios

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Tension

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Clunky

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