Every day patterns or the unexpected

The pod of dolphins was a joy to behold as they jumped out of the water and swam past this morning (image for illustration not those from this morning I'm afraid.)

I can't say that I spend all my time looking out of my office window, and certainly can't tell you how many ships go past in any day.

And yet today within seconds of each other my neighbour and I both noticed the pod as it traveled past and sent texts to each other so we didn't miss them.

That's what our attention can be like - we don't notice the every day things that happen frequently, and yet do notice the unexpected or out of the ordinary.

The challenge when coaching others, either as a coach or manager, is knowing when to pay attention to the every day patterns and when to focus on the unexpected.

After all, some unhelpful habits may lie in the every day patterns well out of our conscious awareness, and yet can get drowned out and ignored as we pay attention to the unexpected.

Other habits have yet to be developed which means when faced with the unexpected we start grasping for habits that work in other areas of our lives, and may not be so effective with the unexpected.

The key is self awareness ie being attentive to what is working and what isn't and then putting attention where it will have the greatest impact.

Where do you need to put your attention today

And if it's finding new habits to deal with the unexpected why not sign up for my webinar on 3rd Sept.

Frameworks for change

How can you model your values at work? 

Or release the fear? 

Or remember that your openness, trust and caring for everyone enables others to share themselves fully and safely? 

Perhaps it’s about embodying leadership (by considering what a role model for leadership would do in the current situation). 

This is just one subset of cards (in the photo above) from the Frameworks for change coaching process. I use the FCP in coaching because the cards are chosen by the coachee and not me. This often means coachees are more open to exploring how these cards apply to the current situation than defending it. Which makes for a more enlightening and inspired coaching session. 

A coaching session where coachees take responsibility for making the changes needed to achieve their goals.

Low-hanging fruit

“We’ve exhausted the low-hanging fruit, so what do we do now?” 

This is a challenge many procurement departments face. 

Before jumping in with a logical exploration of what to do next - because I suspect you’ve tried that already numerous times - let’s see what a metaphorical exploration can provide. 

That is, if low-hanging fruit is picked quickly, and only once, how do we get more harvest for our organisations? 

• get a ladder
• wait for the higher-hanging fruit to fall
• remove the overgrowth hiding the fruit
• look for the harder-to-reach fruit
• find ways to increase the yield
• reduce waste
• find uses for the wonky fruit
• ensure we compost the rotten fruit
• get more revenue for the fruit we do pick
• reduce the total cost of growing and harvesting
• expand the amount of fruit we grow (perhaps expanding to other orchards)
• change the variety we plant
• buy fruit from others
• elongate the harvesting season
• plan next year’s harvest better
• move to better soil, or less climate-affected areas
• use fruit from other areas
• diversify into growing other fruits or vegetables 

Any other ideas? 

Somewhere within the metaphorical exploration is a seed of an idea for delivering more value.

Photo by niklas_hamann on Unsplash