Want Your People to Work More with You and Less Against You?

Snippet from Public Leadership Workshop

The Frame Controls the Game - Who controls yours?
Yetis and Bigfoots - How are you showing up?

Are Questions the Key to Creating Possibility?

From my experience, asking engaging questions from a place of curiosity is a key if not the key ingredient to explore and set new possibilities. Questions that engage the mind, that challenge current frames of mind and that set new frames or alternative frames of reference.

Is that the only key ingredient? Mmmmhhhh ... there is another ... Intention! Do we have the intention to think possibility, to look for possibility and to create possibility?

Why is that you may ask? Great question!

Intention gives us reason, energy and focus on what we want to achieve. E.g. if my intention is to create, my focus will be on the outcome or result that I want to achieve i.e. the way I want to feel, the relationship I want to have, the goals I want to achieve, etc. In other words, my focus is on that which I want to make happen, want to bring into my life or want to bring into being.

If my intention is to avoid something, than my energy and focus is on the very thing or event that I don't want. And if your energy and focus is on that ... where do you think that leads to???? Well, I let you work out what that is...? :)

Is there anyting else that we should consider to pay attention to? Another great question … Yes, you should :)

You should pay attention to ... "paying attention"! Once we are clear about our intention, what we pay attention to in the process of thinking and creating possibility will determine the quality of our energy and focus, the detail that we direct our energy to and that we focus on. And this will impact on the quality of question that we ask and the purpose of the question.

What do I mean by that?

Let's say you want to bake a cake (intention). Is that enough to bake a great cake?

Here are two examples of what you may pay attention to ...

Example 1 ... What do I need to pay attention to? What type of cake do I want to create? What do I want it to look and taste like? How mouth watering do I want it to make? How will it feel on my palate when I am eating it? What texture will it have? How will I make it? What is involved? What steps do I need to follow? What ingredients do I need? In what order to I need to add or mix them? How much fun do I want to have baking it? What do I need to do to make it fun? etc.

Example 2 ... Why do I need to bake a cake? What if it doesn't turn out the way I want to? What if it doesn't taste good? What if I do it wrong and miss an ingredient? Baking a cake is boring (statement!!!), not much fun - what else could I do instead? What if it gets burned? What if my cake is not as good as my friend's? etc, etc.

You are the judge ... which set of questions to you find more enticing, engaging, enriching and fun? Which questions engage more possibility? What do they focus on? What energy do they generate?

So how do you approach and create possibility in your life? What are your intentions? What are you paying attention to?

To your highest and best
Mike