Thriving Through the Vortex of Change – December Newsletter
As we emerge through this extraordinary vortex of change year I am deeply struck that our mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with passion, compassion, humour grace and style
As we prepare for the extraordinary year ahead and enjoy a fun December, let’s flourish and thrive by having the right mindset to foster enduring resilience.
Now that most of us are currently navigating transformation and change, it is important to have the right mindset but most importantly we need to ensure that we are allocating our time and resources wisely. I particularly like this output from McKinsey’s recent research on the right mindset to foster greater resilience.
After studying the graphic, I have been personally working on the following with greater intensity and vigour and there are other areas I am focused on too. My examples are:
Abundance v Scarcity – as we drive our Impact Start Mission Beyond and fund Open Doors, a national digital infrastructure for the Social Mobility Ecosystem – I have found that capacity, capability and resources are often limited. So approaching the gap with this “I have plenty and will share with others” is really helping me do more and be more!
Agent v Victim – Even though I have never thought of myself as a victim, I am really loving this notion of “I back myself to get things done” and there is only so much I can do but doing it brilliantly drives momentum and progress particularly when combined with constantly taking the time to be curious.
With the revelation that we need to ensure we are in the right mindset to Thrive, I love this beautiful illustration that unveils the importance of allocating our time properly.
Let us be transparent with ourselves… We only have a finite amount of personal and professional resources, so choosing carefully how we use our time and energy is fundamental to improving our mental and physical well being.
A personal example of my own, of where I channel my valuable energy and time, is practising Yoga.
It allows me to recalibrate, find my flow and set myself to Thrive in the best way I can. It’s even more meaningful being part of a yoga community that engages teachers, students, practitioners and vital local engagement in health, happiness and kindness to really thrive together because of our age, sex, colour, creed and physical/cognitive abilities.
We are blessed in Oxford to have a charitable organisation that seek to share the voice and practice of good Yoga with superb local teachers, all within a zero-carbon beautiful new home. The Vishuddha Centre, with James Pritchard & Jacqueline Mangold, is a wonderful Yoga Community with a wonderful history and richly-diverse collection of students – all with the common desire to practise their Yoga, recalibrate, find their flow and Thrive in their own personal lives.
Understand this, Yoga is what works for me – however, you need to find out what works for you, as you continue to Thrive in your life.
Take the time to find out what brings you genuine happiness, because despite the good and bad days that we, unfortunately, cannot avoid – In order to Thrive, we need to have balance and enjoy our lives.
An example of this is that I have recently rediscovered Tennis that I played with my siblings as a child and I love it! This is what is bringing me so much joy. I have found, the more you play, the more you find a rhythm – and dare I say it… Flow!
🎾There are some physical changes that happen when one is in flow that improve concentration, cognitive awareness and lift mood which I found v useful and could actually apply!
🎾But, as we all know in life and sport, there are many distractions that can get in our way and cause one to lose focus so some helpful advice on staying focused
🎾To stay focused and keep flow one can be much more active in the present, always giving oneself immediate feedback which I totally do and love
🎾Plus of course making sure we set goals that challenge us, that make us want to practise and achieve more!
I understand that finding the flow can be quite challenging at first, especially when you are trying to make the conscious decision to Thrive in your life. However, with this beautiful image, you may discover that it is in the ‘little’ things that can make life more enjoyable for you.
Now we have discovered that, finding your flow and discovering what brings you joy will help you to Thrive.
Next we need to learn to be more adaptive, as we navigate through the changes that will arise in the future.
I came across the article ‘How to use design thinking to create a happier life for yourself’ which I have found to be very practical, especially during the times we are living today.
These are simple agile methodologies applied and great advice on how to design your life:
1) Connect your dots to find meaning (who you are, what you believe, what you do) – Purpose with a capital P.
2) Be wary of gravity problems (challenges one must accept and work through to move on with it) – Managing your impact.
3) Do three odyssey plans or three special ideations for your life eg
– Life 1 is the life and job that you’re currently living — just make it better.
– For Life 2, let’s pretend that your job just doesn’t exist anymore. The AI and robots have come, and your job has disappeared. What are you going to do instead? What will you do if Life 1 goes away?
– And for Life 3, this is your wild card plan. What would you do if you didn’t have to worry about money? If you had enough money — not so much that you’re fabulously wealthy but enough and to live on — what would you do?
4) Prototype everything; trial it, do a pilot! This is such fun.
5) To choose well, make choices emotional and irrevocable.
Within an organisation, in order to Thrive it is vital to have an adaptive culture. I have always defined culture as a shared set of values (what we care about), beliefs (what we believe to be true), and norms of behaviour (how we do things). Within an organisation, cultures exist to align effort, engender shared sensemaking, increase predictability, and encode organizational lessons about what does and doesn’t work.
To explain why this is so important, this wonderful MIT article reveals how culture is key to transformation and lists 7 elements of adaptive change. It goes into detail that culture is dynamic and that change will happen in their organizations even if they do nothing to guide it. So adapting is critical; these 7 elements are most consistently prevalent in successful organisational transformations!
Having an adaptive culture is paramount within an organization, note that in order to Thrive, it is paramount we learn how to manage stress.
Stress happens. It is a part of life. However, how we manage stress is very very important. As you are aware, the past two years have been eventful – a health pandemic, huge technology shifts, climate change and social issues. This has caused some of us to develop a layer of stress within our lives.
Two recent big learnings for me are:-
- improving still further my relationship with control
- better understanding root causes and linking learning with action
As a deeply researched resource, this Harvard Business Review article has proved very helpful and is worth digesting:
On control – being able to separate out what you can and cannot control is essential. When you’re overwhelmed, it’s easy to assume you can’t change your situation. There are issues that may always be outside of your control.
Ask yourself, “How close am I to the root causes or decision-makers in these circumstances? Do I have the skills, information, resources, or relationships that enable me to change or influence this situation?”
For elements that you can’t control – recognise that you do have the ability to choose how to interpret or frame them!
And as this lovely graphic highlights not all stressful storms come to disrupt your life, well managed, they can clear a path forward for us
This may be a bold statement, but note that in order to Thrive – sometimes you will need to accept reality. Let me share this with you… ”Good Leaders Know You Can’t Fight Reality”
This Harvard Business Review article, explores that Acceptance is often misunderstood as approval. It is actually about acknowledging the facts and letting go of the time, effort, and energy wasted in the fight against reality!! Whatever it is you’re facing, you can’t employ your best skills to deal with it until you stop the wrangle against reality and accept what you’ve been handed, ready to change things for the better.
Scott Edinger, the author of the piece offers up three kinds of acceptance that leaders should focus on:
1) Accepting results
2) Accepting circumstances
3) Accepting their failings and those of others.
Many of these concepts that have been around for centuries where in military history, Admiral Jim Stockdale shared his wartime experiences “it was the abject optimists who didn’t make it out. They said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come and go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come and go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.
Here lies for me the biggest attitudinal tip around Acceptance – never confuse ‘faith’ that you will prevail in the end– which you can never afford to lose– with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
As Seth Godin has shared “Winners quit all the time. They just quit the right stuff at the right time”
A final element, that may sometimes be overlooked when embarking on a journey to Thrive, is ensuring that we are fueling our bodies properly. We need the energy to live an effective life.
November is also known as Vegan Month, where this Apple News story sourced from British Vogue, enriches the Vegan debate.
There is no question the gut is our second brain, the key to our wellbeing – and the seat of our soul. It is where the majority of our hormones are produced, and, for this reason, has a serious impact on how we look, think and feel. Superfoods are rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants – and are a great tool to support, stimulate and service our gut.
I hope you have found this insightful and timely – we are all on this extraordinary journey together. I wish you all a lovely December, and would love to hear of your inputs on embarking on the journey to Thrive and leave you with F Scott Fitzgerald at his most thought-provoking:
Love to hear your inputs, insights and ideas for 2022.
Warmest
Harriet