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April 22 - April 22, 2023
What we need, instead, is the ability and tools to thoughtfully address the situation and select the behavior that is best suited to our particular challenge or opportunity.
What we need, instead, is the ability and tools to thoughtfully address the situation and select the behavior that is best suited to our particular challenge or opportunity.
results. Jeff 2 has helped alleviate their feelings of being under threat and needing to know all the answers, so they are able to problem solve and collaborate without feeling threatened and reverting to their own default behaviors.
results. Jeff 2 has helped alleviate their feelings of being under threat and needing to know all the answers, so they are able to problem solve and collaborate without feeling threatened and reverting to their own default behaviors.
Because Jeff 2 isn’t reverting to his old pattern of taking the problem entirely onto his own shoulders, he is willing to ask Janice for help.
Because Jeff 2 isn’t reverting to his old pattern of taking the problem entirely onto his own shoulders, he is willing to ask Janice for help.
how he acted during moments when he felt threatened. When did he revert to his default behaviors, and when was he able to stay fluid and learn something new? What external factors affected his behavior?
how he acted during moments when he felt threatened. When did he revert to his default behaviors, and when was he able to stay fluid and learn something new? What external factors affected his behavior?
Thinking about the day ahead, he asks himself when he is most likely to feel threatened and thinks about how he would like to respond.
Thinking about the day ahead, he asks himself when he is most likely to feel threatened and thinks about how he would like to respond.
volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA),
Although many leaders struggle to let themselves function on autopilot, relax, or make time for recovery even in a low-stakes familiar context, these activities play a crucial role in our overall performance and our ability to lead. In particular, coasting has a negative connotation, but it can be beneficial to coast when the situation calls for it because it frees up our cognitive and energetic resources for other things, allowing our mind to take a break and conserve energy for when we are facing higher-pressure situations.
completing some other mundane tasks, and we suddenly have a “eureka” breakthrough insight. Others use these “coasting” situations to reflect, take stock, or passively explore and learn,
Finally, a low-stakes Familiar Zone context is a good time to practice or rehearse our existing skills.
In each of these cases, the person in flow is working hard, but it doesn’t look hard. To the untrained eye, the athlete’s motions, the movement of the artist’s paintbrush, or the CEO’s speech appear effortless. In reality, we are extremely effortful in this state, but it is also gratifying to be completely engrossed in what we are doing and demonstrating the full extent of our expertise.
They can and should make adjustments to their performance based on how their opponents are playing, but they are still adjusting within the realm of their established expertise. They are not learning a totally new technique in the middle of a game as they would be required to do in the Adaptive Zone.
In the Familiar Zone, the primary “interference” to overcome is often less about external obstacles and comes in the form of anxiety, rumination, self-doubt, ego, and so on.
In order to succeed and achieve our goals in this context, we are challenged to let go of our established success models and learn something new in the midst of intense pressure and the often-frightening unknown. Yet, as we will explore further, the natural human response to an uncertain, high-stakes situation is the exact opposite—to defend, protect, and revert back to what we already know.
While we may perceive threats and shift into a state of protection regardless of our context, the higher the stakes are and the more our circumstances require us to adapt, the more likely we are to shift into protection, rendering us incapable of doing so.
However, personal triggers can shift us into protection even when we are in the Familiar Zone and there is no true need to adapt or there is no existing threat of any kind.
First, the situation is likely to include personal triggers,
Second, there is a real challenge to contend with,
Finally, an Adaptive challenge is likely threatening not only to us but also to the people around
group with the financial incentive experienced higher stakes within the Adaptive Zone. These higher stakes affected their creativity negatively. They were less likely to successfully solve the problem than the group that was facing lower stakes.3
When our brains predict that we are safe and will stay that way for the foreseeable future, we are easily able to remain calm and access a state of learning. If we predict that we are or will soon be in danger or even just facing the unknown, we shift into protection.
When our brains receive information about something that matches with past feelings of safety, we are able to remain in our state of learning. When our brains receive information about something that matches with a previously experienced threat,
we move into protection.
When our brains sift through our prior experiences and do not find a match because we are facing something new or uncertain, they will remain alert for threats simply because they have never encountered anything like this before
Our brains will remain alert until one of three things happens: we interpret the situation as safe, we have used our past experience and knowledge to make sense of the situation, or we have learned something new.
but because our brains are not sure whether or not we are safe, we often get stuck in protection instead, reacting with knee-jerk, fear-based behaviors.
high-stakes Familiar Zone situation. The presentation and its outcome are important, but she has the tools that she needs to succeed. However, her internal triggers prevent her from performing at her peak and instead shift her into protection.
But when we are able to keep part of our attention in external observer mode, we gain a more objective awareness of the reality of the situation, how we are interpreting the situation, how the situation is affecting us internally, and vice versa.
Indeed, many of our personal narratives go on to become self-fulfilling prophecies.
our default mindsets aren’t necessarily good or bad, but when they exist entirely outside of our awareness, they can be limiting in certain situations.
If you find that you are operating from a fixed mindset, ask yourself: •How can this challenge be an opportunity? •What could be possible if I learn and develop from this experience?
What questions, new perspectives, or opportunities do I want to explore? •If I approach this with fresh eyes, forgetting for now what I already know, what would I get curious about? •What would be possible if I could embrace the struggles that come with learning something new?
If you find that you are operating with a reactive mindset in the Adaptive Zone, ask yourself: •What is the bigger “why” that I am solving for? •If this challenge were actually a hidden opportunity to create something different and better, what would I want? What could I imagine that would be important and meaningful? •What is the smallest step that I can take toward getting to the end state I desire?
If you find that you are operating from a victim mindset, ask yourself: •What are the various ways I can influence the situation? •What do I already have going for me? What capabilities, ideas, or resources could I access to successfully navigate this challenge?
This is an especially useful mindset to adopt when facing a negotiation.
If you find that you are operating from a scarcity mindset, ask yourself: •What could be a win-win scenario in this situation? •If I release some of the constraints on the situation, what might be a bigger opportunity?
If you find yourself operating from a certainty mindset, ask yourself: •What is the smallest thing I can do to try out a different approach and learn fast? •What are three other perspectives on potential solutions to this problem?
If you find yourself operating from a safeguard mindset when it doesn’t serve you, ask yourself: •What if this is not a risk-avoidance scenario but an opportunity-capturing scenario? •What is the most audaciously good thing that can come out of this? •How might I be able to encourage that to happen?
The final step is to find moments to practice the new behavior that you wish to exhibit. The more you do this, the more you will be able to rewrite the personal narrative embedded in your iceberg and create a new pattern of results.
Daniel realized that he had been prioritizing knowing the answer above getting to an aligned vision and set of actions with the whole team.
Regardless of what anyone else was or wasn’t doing, Daniel could adapt his mindset and his leadership behavior to better address the current crisis.
he did not need to know the answer to be a good leader but rather needed to rally the team to collaborate on a journey of discovery,
His mindset changed from, “To be a good leader (in this challenge), I have to know the answer and people need to follow me,” to, “To be a good leader (in this challenge), I need to collaborate, listen to all the different perspectives, and support people to come to a collective decision.”
He helped facilitate a number of “what if” scenarios to pressure-test the various ideas and assumptions behind the different positions. And he encouraged the others to do the same,
could listen to other people’s viewpoints without immediately judging whether they were right or wrong or being preoccupied with forming his own reactions.
People who say they are “living their purpose” at work report levels of well-being that are five times higher than those who say they are not.1
