Are we leaving room for better ideas?
I recently asked my EA to type up some flip charts from an executive team session I ran.
I had in my mind how I thought they might look when I got them back, but they didn’t look like that. They looked better. At first, I thought I would send it back and ask for the updates to match my vision, but when I looked again, I realised the benefit of the layout she had created. I liked it. So, l left it.
It was a nice, gentle reminder that my way is not always the best way. I know. Shocker. But there it is.
I wonder how often we find ourselves directing to a level of detail that is totally unnecessary?
Not only are we in danger of patronizing our people, but we miss the opportunity to learn something ourselves. To learn a better way, to learn how our people see the world, to see creativity in action. What a gift!
It also made me think of one of the comments from a member of the executive team. We had a number of flip charts set up at different stations around the room. Each person started at one flip chart, and after rotating around all the stations, ended up back at the beginning, to see a fully filled out flip chart (beyond their one initial answer). The executive remarked on the fact that when he answered the question on the first flip chart, he thought that was a pretty straight forward answer and he wondered what else there was to say on the topic. It seemed there wasn't much more to add.
By the time he had made his way around the various stations, and ended up back at his original flip chart he said how surprised he was by what he saw. Lots of ideas he hadn’t even considered – different ways of interpreting the question, lots of out of the box answers and ideas he never would have thought of. He was delighted.
That’s the beauty of being less directive. When we can let go of how we think it should be, we gain access to all it could be. And, I’d argue, that's usually where the gold is.