Author: simongterry

Ideas are always at play. In the great networks of the world they frolic. They bounce, transform, unite, evolve and disappear. When ideas are in play in these networks, it is always fun. There is the exhilarating sense of creation through collaboration through interaction.

Are you playing too? What playful conversations about ideas are going on in your networks? How are you letting ideas play in your own personal network of knowledge?

Nobody knows everything. No idea can’t be tested in play. Three are always surprises in fun.

There are always ideas at play. The only question is whether you are missing out on the fun.

One night at a dinner party visiting friends in London, I had the group laughing at my tortuous path to dinner on the London Underground. As a tourist I had travelled the long way across multiple lines between two stations that are a short walk apart. My mental map of London was the tube map and I didn’t realise how much the geography differed. I am not alone – up to 30% of passengers on the tube take a longer than necessary journey by following the iconic map.

The human brain loves patterns. We absorb maps and make them our guides to daily action. In our work context these maps may not be as pretty as the underground map but we have familiar patterns that describe our inputs, our key relationships, our processes and our outputs. We carry these maps from job to job and organisation to organisation. Often we carry them long beyond their usefulness.

Usual our work maps don’t reflect the potential geography. They are a simplification of the complexity of the real world with real customers. They don’t adjust often enough to the shifting context of our organisation.

Check your mental map. Share your work with others doing similar work or your stakeholders. Working out loud is one way to let someone else’s better local knowledge guide us to a better way. Experiments in changing practices help us to keep our mental map of work updated.

Doing what you have always done, gets you where you always get. Change the map and you change your potential. Look for the opportunity to work in ways that are easier and more effective.

Today you are going to work, play, eat, create, watch, start, engage, walk, open, converse, complete and dream. The list of verbs that will fill your busy day is long and ever growing. How many of these will you do unthinkingly without considering another possible way?

Make sure you don’t miss an important verb in any day: experiment.

How are you going to experiment? What is the one small change you want to test today? What hunch do you have that things can be better?

Just the act of reflecting on the alternatives will improve your day. Going through your day learning as you measure your experiments will add even greater value.

If you are struggling for a hypothesis to test in an experiment, here are three universal examples to test today:

– you will learn more talking to more people: engage someone in conversation who is not part of your usual circle
– purpose matters: start a conversation about the reason for a piece of work to assess the energy and effectiveness of the discussion
– leadership exists in every role: enable someone to see the difference that they can make. Test your leadership and theirs.

Today is a busy day full of opportunities to experiment with the power of small change.

Yesterday is over. Your issues all ended Yesterday in one moment. You are free. Make today count.

Yesterday was the last day you felt your potential was constrained.
Yesterday was the last day you were unclear on your purpose & value.
Yesterday was the last day you felt you had to keep silent.
Yesterday was the last day that you walked past something that needed fixing.
Yesterday was the last day money, politics, power and process mattered more than people.
Yesterday was the last day of you had to wait for permission
Yesterday was the last day of frustration.

The problems all ended yesterday. The problems were a perception. You see the world more clearly today.

Make today count.