Exploring The Givens

Exploring the givens is something we need to do in order to challenge those things that sit in the background and quietly undermine us.

Whether at home or at work, we tend to focus on things around us that are changing, or that are connected to our own actions, because that is where much of the information that matters to us tends to be located. Life is much simpler if we filter out things that appear to be unchanging or irrelevant. Occasionally we must explore the givens.

But when the ‘stable, irrelevant background’ contains important information, this simplification breaks down. Many ‘problems’ become ‘problematic’ because the background contained potentially important information we did not notice until it was too late.

Breaking Mindsets

Breaking mindsets is all about smashing fixed ways of thinking. Most, if not all of us have either a fixed way of doing things or a fixed way of thinking about things. These fixed patterns are known as mindsets and they can severely limit our actions in both business and private life. Imagine that you take the same route each day when you walk to your place of work. Each day you buy the same newspaper and the same sandwich for lunch. Over time you begin to get a little fed up with your choice of sandwich and the newspaper does not seem to engage you as it once did.

Examining Business Boundaries

Many business owners think of their business in terms of what they do on a daily basis e.g. farmers milk cows, printers print brochures and jewellers make jewellery. A better way of thinking about your business is to ask the question ‘what is it (of value) that I create and who helps me to do this?’ We should be examining business boundaries. Any other person or business that helps you in terms of creating value, and hence money for your pocket, is in fact an extension of your business.

A Christmas Gift For 2020

christmas 2020 boundary relaxation

At this time of year, I like to ponder the things that happen at Christmas and then find humorous ways of saying why they could not possibly happen.

For example:

Jingle Bells (and other assorted tunes) – too loud, causing environmental noise pollution and hearing damage

Christmas dinner – responsible for the obesity epidemic, only healthy eating lunches allowed

Christmas presents – in order to hit recycling targets no wrapping paper is to be used

Three wise men – how wise are they, set up league tables for comparison

Santa’s Outfit – not suitable for visually impaired/colour blind people

Gifts for baby Jesus – select alternative gifts as current ones are choking hazards

Sleigh delivery – restrictions placed by RSPCA on reindeer speed due to potholes caused by government cutbacks

Dining table – workstation assessments required due to incompatible dining chairs/table combinations

But this year we have COVID so add the following also:

Sleigh delivery – no signing for presents. An Elf will leave it on the doorstep (not down the chimney) and take a photo

Christmas Dinner – keeping the required distance away from relatives means that the more resilient members of your family will need to sit in the garden

Drinking – this will be severely curtailed as a great deal of alcohol from distilleries has been converted into hand sanitiser (please do not drink this)

Christmas Crackers – please do not laugh at the jokes. This can cause the dispersal of water droplets into the air

The point is that it is possible to raise objections, cancel events or avoid taking actions altogether by hiding behind ‘the givens’. Normally these are rules and regulations but sometimes these are just personal or organisational barriers that can be demolished if we have the will to.

So let’s turn this on its head. If we can find lots of reasons not to do something as big and fun as Christmas, just think what we could all do next year if we demolished all of the silly barriers or objections that stand in the way (or which we put in the way). I like to call this Boundary Relaxation and it can be a very useful technique indeed.

If you would like to know more about how you can use alternative thinking techniques in your organisation please visit my ReThinking page.

For a no obligation chat please book a Zoom call (in your own timezone).

Weirdos And Mavericks In Whitehall?

weirdos and mavericks in whitehallMuch has been made in the press of Dominic Cummings and his desire to appoint ‘weirdos’ to all parts of the Civil Service. I have a couple of articles written a while ago about being a rebel and also appointing them. If you are interested read Harnessing The Power Of Rebels and Become A Rebel And Boost Your Career.

Dominic Cummings ‘vision will never happen for a number of reasons.

First of all Whitehall moves more slowly than an oil tanker, and to force it to do so would not just dismantle the machinery that keeps the UK running, it would put a giant bomb underneath it.

Secondly, and more importantly, creativity cannot be left to work on its own, unless of course, you live in a commune. All creative environments have very carefully crafted ‘containers’ to nurture the creativity and also extract the output of the creative processes. In an organisation this can be hard, but in Whitehall?

Finally, what is his strategy for doing this? Will he have a large sports hall full of weirdos all throwing in their ideas or will he replace many of the people in the Whitehall machinery with his alternative thinking recruits? Too many weirdos and he risks replacing one ‘establishment’ with another.

True creativity comes from a tension (think straight vs funny in comedy) and making use of that requires people with a true understanding of the problem, not just a love of sound bites.

I cannot deny that Whitehall does deserve a bit of a shakeup but there needs to be an end goal. Whitehall is a machine that does things (like run the country) it is not a playground or a think tank. The job in hand is not unlike trying to tune a racing car whilst it is being driven around a race track.

Maybe a good plan is to start small by picking a government department that is small and possibly relatively new. Try moulding that, by introducing new ways of working and create a pilot (or prototype as some innovators might say). Then play some more.

To be truly creative the Whitehall structures would need to be fluid and I’m not sure that government is ready for that just yet.

Lastly, I have one further thought. Exactly how is this to be done? Scope it, put it out to procurement and you will simply get a spec for a very large and expensive change program which will see the big consultancy boys in lunches for a long time and will be no different from what has gone before. After all, they probably ran the last change program!!

Readers will be thinking that although I promote Creativity and Innovation  I am simply rubbishing the ideas of Dominic Cummings. The civil service requires reform, it does not require complete anarchy.

I remain both hopeful and sceptical that something at least a little weird will happen.