In always responding to events, we are in the grips of a pattern that we do not see. Another Groundhog Day! No wonder so many people report feeling tired, exhausted, at the mercy of a relentless busyness!
The first step in managing change is to see the pattern that keeps you stuck in the repeat loop. The second step is to see your contribution to the making the pattern sticky. Only then, might some choices emerge.
Moving from a pattern of responding to events to engaging with the pattern itself is significant shift in thinking. In truth, responding to events does not require a lot of thinking. However, engaging with patterns requires a capacity to think broadly and comprehensively – across time and space.
Engaging with patterns is a discipline
How might we practice it? What skills do we need to build? Here are a few thoughts:
We need to develop a stable mind where we do not get caught up in our own resentment and greed. We need to be able to see our perceptual filters and then move beyond them so that we are not trapped by our likes and dislikes. Executive coaching might have a role to play here.
Develop a regular routine of agenda free meetings.
This means having meetings with colleagues that do not have a fixed agenda that is circulated in advance. If you go to a meeting where you do not know what is coming up, you will automatically think more broadly. Read more about agenda-free meetings at the Originize project.
In addition to having a practice of agenda-free meetings, actively seek other ways to transgress how things are usually done. In breaking patterns, we see them more clearly. Creative transgression is transgression aligned with principle, respecting the rules while breaking the rules. This enables life and energy trapped within patterns to break loose.
As an example, I sense that the standard practice at business meetings where everyone introduces themselves at the start immediately introduces a reductionist mindset to what follows. Everyone aids and abets the other in sticking to their role. Instead dive straight in. Use the confusion that follows as a resource for creativity. Do the introductions at the end if you need.
Create more deliberate points of confusion
What else can you do to create deliberate points of confusion, to break patterns so that you can see them and discover ways of thinking more broadly and comprehensively?
Read about Performance Management.
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