The President of our Board of ICCO recently posed this question to the Board at large. Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting some of our answers. This first one comes from Dorothy Siminovitch.

What’s “innovative” is one of the perennial questions connected to human creativity, organizational sustainability and workplace optimization. In difficult economic times, “what’s innovative” may be the question that ignites the kind of thinking and behavior that cuts through what is no longer working and new possibilities that will serve a “renewing” marketplace. During affluent times, “what’s innovative” can help individuals and organizations stay at their cutting edge. It is acceptable, at the least, to see challenging times as a test of us at all levels of the human system. It is important to call in “old truths” during challenging times, inspirational support to “see” though challenging times and provocative new possibilities that break up outdated models. Some thoughts for your reflection:

1. There is a cyclical nature to life and that means economic and organizational life. Affluence and economic strength sometimes get tested and corrected by the lean times. The question becomes, how prepared are we for the challenge of lean times. What values and which models serve us? What did we miss in the affluent times that can be captured by the difficult times?

2. What are you learning? What do you need to learn, short term and long term? How can you stimulate and encourage the power of learning when there may be more time for learning and benefits around the corner in relation to learning. Encourage learning transferable skills in different sectors, work part-time for learning, or become CEO of your own new venture and hire in your learning at negotiated salaries.

3. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Assist clients to become skilled at how they use themselves in selling themselves in relation to what matters-their position, their perspective, their offer. How effective does the client feel in creating new possibilities and negotiating new possibilities. Negotiate as possibility versus negotiate as reduction. Teach the difference.

4. Emotional intelligence and wealth of presence. How effective is the client in being transparent about what matters when it is also important and therefore delicate. Can they access feelings that assist interpersonal exchange, strengthening of communication, reduction of uncertainty, enhancement of relationship and infusion of optimism. If not, are they interested in working on these human capacities which add value to the workplace. As coach, consultant or leader, can you be the guide toward skill practice? Have you also “done your work”? Do we see what is hidden in front us waiting to be recognized and named?

5. The “I” , the “you and the “we”. “Who am I” is a lifelong developmental task punctuated by the desire for relationship and the need for livelihood. What identity have we developed that serves our interior and how do our interior experience, our values, emotions, lived experience serve our being as we present to others? How well do we allow ourselves to inhabit the moment with attention to process as well as content? What supports our staying reflective to what matters and focused on doing what serves our uppermost goals and values? What developed habits serve us and what have become “outdated” that we may be unaware of. How committed are we to staying “awake” to our own challenges of development? 2. All of us only experience our impact in the presence of others. Who do we surround ourselves with? Who are/is the “you” we turn to? Old social science research taught us that we need one other person to confirm our reality, do you have others who validate you but you trust enough to test you? Do you have a trusted other to reality test feedback you are given? If not, why not? Feedback, is always an opportunity for growth, even bad feedback. Even wrong feedback. We decide what we “take-in” but, if we do not ask for feedback, we have deprived ourselves of the developmental possibility for growth. 3.) The “we”. An Indian guru of mine likes to say, “surround yourselves in good company”. We need the “we” archetypally to feel safe in the world. In the basic sense, organizations are dressed up versions of the human species around the camp-fire. But the human collective, the “we” is the caldron that feeds us with possibilities of positive competition, cross-pollination of ideas, economies of life when we share new products, relevant ideas and concerns. The “we” allows us to be more resource wealthy. Social impoverishment is the isolation of the “we” from the “I”. Alienation is the when the “I” rejects the “we”. Human loneliness is revealed when we lose our connection to the “you” who are important to us. All three levels of systems conspire together in terms of leaders, coaches and consultants. Where are we effective in intervening? Do we have a developmental understanding of the challenges at the individual, dyadic and organizational level? Are there any levels of system that we feel less skilled in engaging with? Is there an opportunity for learning?

6. What “matters” is the accent piece to what is innovative. How willing are we to be adaptive in service of growth, but adaptive in relation to what matters. Survival is not just a muscular outcome as people misinterpreted Charles Darwin. He did not really mean , survival of the fittest, but survival of those most willing to adapt. The capacity for adaptation is behind a new learning competency recognized as “learning agility” that affects our capacity for adaptation to people’s needs, desired results, process, and the constant march of change. Learning flexibility needs to be molded to human relevance or growth can be feared rather than welcomed. And, we need to get more skilled at welcoming change since we now swimming in swiftly changing patterns across organizational, social and technological dimensions.

7. Learn to seize the moment. At a recent conference, I decided to offer a powerpoint because I thought the size of the audience would do better with a large visual. The learning I got was that my presentation was the powerpoint and the actual powerpoint was the tool. Identify what are your personal sources of power are to make your relevant points in the moment. Be your own powerpoint!

8. The great Carl Whittaker used to preach, “practice dying everyday”. He meant this figuratively. If we start to take stock of the speed of our lives and the rapidity in which it is over, then we may become more committed to cherishing every moment where choice and opportunity live. Difficult times are an opportunity to find out about our character, our capacity to influence others and our willingness to live with optimism over despair. No matter what, we are always choosing. Are we aware of what we are choosing?

9. Keep learning. The smarter you are, the more you know this.

10. We were “built” for difficult times because it calls for us to be engaged with new possibility. We are lucky to have this come again, let us use it.

Dorothy E. Siminovitch, Ph.D., MCC
ICCO Board Member
Gestalt and Ontological Coach
Eurasisan Gestalt Coaching Program
Director of Training & Co-owner IGCP
Life & Executive, Group & Organizational Coach