Use everything

Each of you will have goals that are harder to reach, and evident strengths and weaknesses to bring to bear or mitigate to get there.

Some of the weaknesses are resource needs that are critically limited.   This means, in connection with your goals, it is the absence of these resources that stops you dead.  For resource here I mean anything useful: people, thoughts, money, tools, anything.

Have you ever felt though, that things you might need seem to turn up just when you need them?  Often things that have been there all along and then a need arises and you recognise the resource.

This has to do with mental priming.  You've heard that you cannot tell the mind "not" to think of something (usually we are asked not to think of an elephant :-)).  Similarly if you decide to focus on anything, a particular colour or number for example, the mind immediately starts to find it and it can seem to become suddenly abundant.  It's not changed in fact, but your attention has.

If your motivation for your goals is high enough for it to get your full attention, don't let that be sabotaged by the absence of a critically limited resource need.  Try working on the problem, for example using a forcefield exercise or CEDAC.  As you do so, firstly sift through all your existing resources and resource combinations,  work thoroughly through it and use everything to start with.

"If I used anything and everything around me and in me, what ideas do I have that will move me forwards?"

Only after a full review do you then choose two or three pathways to try.

Use everything.  Milton Erickson called it "utilisation" in a slightly different context, but it's a great idea to use everywhere.

What are your choices?

In my last blog update "Dreaming new reality" I emphasised the importance of creative thinking about your goals.

I guess the hackneyed phrase is "think outside the box". It is easy to dismiss the cliche. However, when you are searching for business growth it is useful to test many options.  It is probably unforgivable, given the risks, not to establish the options fully.

Classic examples include:

• only considering local markets
• not agreeing why a product or service is attractive to you (by what criteria, and what importance each has)
• only considering organic growth options

Failing properly to review the options is natural.  Decisions are often time pressured, and it can be hard to persuade colleagues to spend time on things that are not obvious. This can be especially the case if there is no established method for reviewing options more openly before selecting the key elements on which to focus. Who wants to argue against the flow and the status quo?

"Inside the box" thinking may well include the right answers, but there is a strong probability that it will not.  It is critically limited thinking, constrained by existing ideas and structures; by "the most familiar".

Here are some of the reasons why thinking gets constrained:

• attention is narrowly focussed and no-one on the board has the experience or wisdom to take a step back
• there is no "normal" process of debate that includes more divergent ideas
• creative thinking is thought of negatively; perhaps seen as "madcap", "unstructured" or "distractions" (which are also a result of poor thinking or process;  there is no inevitable logic to such attitudes)
• failure to notice any of the above happening

I suspect the last is the most common.  It is very human only to notice the weather as it changes, but I would be interested to hear your views.

At each significant point of decision, a balance of research, discussion and agreement is needed.  Good process can take you through all of these rapidly.