Building bridges, using practices that open us up, connect, and move us.
How do we envision a breakthrough movement – for us, our team, our organization, our world? And what does actually get us moving? Ideas and insights not connected to action stay in the realm of dreams. It’s like the well-known riddle of the three frogs: “Three frogs are sitting on a water-lily leaf. Two decide to jump. How many are left? –– The answer is: Three. It’s just not enough to decide to jump; we have actually got to do it.”
What does it take us to move our brilliant thought from probability to reality? And how do we overcome the urge to continuously look down to see and fix short-term problems, as opposed to looking up to build pathways towards sustainable solutions, where some of the problems are even no longer relevant?
Being of service through our existing norms, filters and biases often doesn’t do the job.
Sensemaking and sensegiving – beyond using words.
How do we build bridges and pathways? How to gain perspective?
Let’s support our people to connect to the work on a deeper level, not only owning it but actually finding love in what they do. Let’s show up at work (and in life…) with more than our beautiful minds. Working smart, let’s extend our hands and our hearts in service of something bigger than ourselves.
Moving from probability to reality
We are mind, body, feelings and spirit. For a solid start, why not tap into these different frequencies, looking through the lenses of our hand, heart and mind? Explore each lens as a possible perspective for translating an interesting idea into practical, emotionally engaging and logical actions.
“Creating a safe and courageous space”
Hand, heart, mind… it’s not for you?
Using the lenses of hand, heart, and mind will help your team overcome the “same, same, but different” syndrome. Getting more of the same, just a little different, is not creating the desired breakthrough. However, if these lenses are not for you or your team, try out any other perspective that you and your team might come up with. Make sure the perspectives chosen are of neutral quality (not connected to any strong emotions) and give it a go.
That’s the beauty of experiments. As long as they don’t do any harm, they will only add value to our way of working. Embracing new ways will automatically lead to more possibilities. Let’s move towards more elegant solutions.
This micro skill is in service of implementation, giving your action traction.
Turn insight into action…
Find the Hand, Heart, Mind game on the Gamestorming website where it is offered to you as part of a rich toolkit for innovators, incubators, rule-breakers, and changemakers.
On their website you find an example as well as instructions on how to best facilitate the game. In short, you explore a topic using the following lenses:
Hand: What makes it tangible and practical? (think of “it” as vision, idea, or course of action)
Heart: What makes it emotionally engaging?
Mind: What makes it logical and sensible?
Experiment also with other perspectives that you feel serve you and your team. What are the team values honored? What inspiration can be harvested from your ecosystem’s supply?
Still in want of other perspectives? Look to your right, what catches your attention? Look to your left, what is flirting with your eye? Take it, explore the quality of it, and ask how that quality informs and adds value to your vision or idea.
That’s it. Easy does it.
Going deeper…
For generating meaningful action, this micro-skill weaves easily into step 4 of the "Bringing down the vision" experiment, see article Teams with Impact Series. 03: Visioneering teams. Co-creating from what is emerging.
Deepen your insights…
The lenses are inspired by Swiss educational reformer Heinrich Pestalozzi whose motto was "Learning by head, hand and heart".
You want to know more about giving your action traction? Send me an email or call me.