The Gift That Keeps On Giving

As a consultant and executive coach, this is what I hear more frequently nowadays. Leadership teams, boards, and event organizers ask me for advice on how to remain in the innovative zone and explore new perspectives before moving into solution and implementation mode. In many cases, they seem overwhelmed by trends, options, and recommendations presented to them. When we are successful in staying longer in the innovative space, the solutions seem to appear more natural to the participants. It all starts with a few meta perspectives and a little bit of patience to remind ourselves where our experiences come from.

"The last thing we need is more inspiration. We need a safe place to explore."

Reflections & Trends

Over the last few years, I have engaged in numerous conversations about where our experiences come from. When I started my consulting and coaching business back in 2010, I was curious to learn more about behavioral science and psychology as to why people did not follow through on own thoughts and defined plans to leverage their potential more fully professionally. What makes people take action and why?

As soon as I started seeing some patterns for my own understanding, I was quickly exposed to new insights, contradicting my current understanding. It was not until 2016 that I stumbled upon the perspectives and one quote specifically originating from Sydney Banks and I realized that I might have asked the wrong questions:

Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it's thinking of yourself less

At first sight, this directly contradicted a big portion of how I was being of services to my customers and clients. I helped professionals boost their careers, position themselves on social media and nurture a portfolio career in the gig economy. A deep understanding of your own ego, your fears, and your ambitions are crucial to do this successfully. My understanding at the time was that we get our experiences from the outside and that we learn and challenge ourselves on the inside to overcome the obstacles and make progress as a response.

What if, as Sydney Banks claimed, this was a misunderstanding? What if our experiences instead are created from the inside out, and that we all have the opportunity to always use our own, internal resources no matter where we are and which challenge we face. I have been deepening my understanding of this over the last few years and now, I consider this a gift that keeps on giving...We are literally one thought away from having a totally different experience. From the inside out. Imagine the potential for any human being and organization when leveraging this understanding more fully. How innovative can we be when we detach ourselves from the ego? I am looking forward to exploring this more in-depth with customers, clients, and business partners over the next few months. 

The challenge

We are all familiar with the expression "to sleep on it", meaning that we will delay our decision or response until the next day, allowing more time to think about it.

 

When was the last time you slept on something, only to realize that your thinking and feelings about the whole experience changed by delaying the reaction?

What were the consequences of your new experience?

 

Want to learn more?

If you are interested in learning more about the inside-out understanding, I strongly recommend you tap into some of the work of the following inspirational sources: 

Sydney Banks / The Three Principles Foundation

The Invisible Power and Brilliance of the Human Mind / Ken Manning

Simplicity in Business / Robin Charbit interviewed by Nicola Bird

Creating from Nothing / Michael Neill