Today’s post probably requires a preamble. We’re having a bit of construction done at our house… my office is in the loft you can see behind the plastic in the picture. It’s been a bit chaotic. Chaos and I are typically not friends – or even friendly.
This past week I started October’s Mindcamp Wave – which is titled “Brain Waves”, focusing on exploring our brain, how it works, and MORE. Mindcamp is enabling creative communities to connect locally — all over the world. Tim Hurson is one of the founders and the person who introduced me to the group.
To say that my brain NEEDED this is an understatement.
Friday’s session was “a simple exercise in lateral thinking.” For me it was not easy… I quickly realized that my brain typically is looking for the single, correct answer.
After 45 minutes of content – conversation – exercises – and our lessons learned wrap up my brain is a bit more flexible and beginning to stretch.
Now having a few tools that I didn’t have before; I put my sideways thinking tools to work on my feelings around the chaos in my personal space.
You’ve probably read here before that one of the two things I believe I can control is how I feel. Even though I can’t change the construction schedule – constraints – temporary changes in my environment. So I got to work!
“Possibility lies in diversity.” ~Francois Coetzee
Instead of allowing myself to be STUCK in the idea of chaos… and chaos not being my friend, I decided to ask myself; what are some divergent thoughts to cultivate?
Although the only way I see to write this is in a linear way THAT is certainly not how my brain went about it: chaos -> dissonance -> improvisation -> jazz -> creativity -> joy
I also know, for myself, if I replace a word with another one my brain has an easier time making a shift (one of my favorites is to replace the idea of fear with curiosity).
Which brings me back to chaos and creativity. Now every time I look around my living and working environment, I’m replacing “chaos” by saying “oh an opportunity to be creative.” It makes me smile, it makes me shift my thinking, it makes my stomach unknot.
Now your probably wondering what any of this has to do with inside sales leadership.
- no matter what is going on in your inside sales universe: there are probably many answers and multiple paths to get there.
- when faced with a challenge, look for input from as diverse a group of people as possible: the concept of “obvious” is different for everyone and each person will probably have a different way of looking at what’s going on.
- being curious rather than fearful is a game changer.
Of course, you probably have different thoughts about what this has to do with inside sales… that aren’t obvious to me!