We talked in Chapter 5 about focusing on the thinking and behaviors that help us capture the lessons of experience. But looking inward is only half of the process. A lesson isn't truly learned until it has been applied outwardly.
If we never tapped the knowledge and insights gained from experience, our world wouldn't really change. The challenges we face would persist. We wouldn't change much either. Our growth as leaders would stagnate. Applying the lessons of experience marks that crucial shift that occurs when we put learning into action. It's what allows us to say, “I am now different because . . . .”
Because applying involves the adaptation of past learning to a new challenge, it requires a mixture of flexibility, creativity, and intuition. It is challenging and sometimes frustrating, but it can also yield exciting “Aha!” moments and well-earned accomplishments.
Experience-driven leaders believe that constant curiosity eventually pays off. There's no such thing as “useless trivia” or “random events” in their worlds. They recognize that steadily gathering knowledge and insight helps stimulate more and more connections in their awareness and understanding of new situations.
The interconnected thinking and fluid actions that typify leaders who excel at applying are the product of a diverse set of behaviors. Of the ten behaviors listed below, identify the three that you feel you are currently strongest in and the three that you feel are most in need of development.
| STRENGTH | NEED |
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Acts on his or her insights. |
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Seeks inspiration from diverse sources. |
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Separates what's familiar from what's new in a problem. |
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Continually searches for new solutions. |
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Evaluates progress based on what he or she has learned. |
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Starts over after setbacks. |
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Adjusts to changes in circumstances. |
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Applies lessons from experience to new challenges. |
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Trusts intuition when solutions to problems are not clear. |
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Forms novel associations and ideas that create new and different ways of solving problems. |
Take a moment to reflect on how your perceived strengths and corresponding development needs in this area have played out in the past and currently. As you progress through this chapter, keep in mind how you might augment or leverage these approaches.
EDDIE VEDDER AND THE “HANDS-ON” LESSON OF THE UKULELE
Eddie Vedder is known as the frontman of Pearl Jam and one of the prominent voices of modern rock, but part of his songwriting inspiration comes from a small, seemingly unlikely source: the ukulele.
While traveling in Hawaii, Vedder spotted a lone ukulele for sale in a cluttered drugstore window and bought it on a whim. Waiting for a friend across the street, Vedder sat down on some stacked cases of beer, and by the time his friend appeared, Vedder was halfway through the first of many songs he would pluck out on the tiny instrument.
Little did he realize that the ukulele would become not only an enjoyable diversion but also a handy tool for sketching out melodies and rethinking his work.
“My hands were on it. But it just taught me so much that changed the way I wrote songs,” he told a Boston newspaper. “Whether anybody was going to hear these songs or not, it was assisting me and furthering whatever direction I had as far as writing songs for the group.”
He added, “I was able to apply ukulele to whatever I'm trying to write. It's become part of songwriting for me, the knowledge I gained from hearing the melodies come out, and then applying that to guitar or vocals.”
The simple act of trying something new led Vedder to grow in an unanticipated direction. By transforming his insights into action, he was able to capitalize on the parallels and connections between his experiments with the ukulele and his larger, more complex compositions for Pearl Jam.
How might you seize upon an unexpected or overlooked source of insight to bring about a fresh approach to solving a problem that matters to you?
Flexible thinkers like Vedder avoid looking at the world in finite, categorical terms. They favor a more fluid mindset where boundaries blur and shift and where categories might be established only to be reshaped based on new information. Typical notions such as beginning and ending, success and failure, should and shouldn't inhibit our ability to generate and apply solutions.
Here are some ways that “boundary-less” thinking emerges.
(ENDLESS) POSSIBILITIES
A solution always exists. It just hasn't been discovered yet. This keeps us in searching mode and considering “What if we . . . ?” and “How might we . . . ?” versus “We didn't” or “We can't” conclusions. This also helps us build off each other's ideas with the use of “Yes, and” responses.
IT'S ALL RELATIVE
Nothing is ever as new as it seems. Whether it's our own experience or someone else's, there's a connection to something that has happened before.
AM I GETTING BETTER?
Goals are important, but the drive to improve supersedes the desire to achieve. A steady focus on making progress and strengthening one's approach overshadows concerns about how far away the eventual goal is.
“MANY OF LIFE'S FAILURES ARE PEOPLE WHO DID NOT REALIZE HOW CLOSE THEY WERE TO SUCCESS WHEN THEY GAVE UP.”
— THOMAS EDISON
A lesson is not truly learned until it is applied. Experience-driven leaders excel at adaptive learning: accessing principles and rules of thumb from previous experiences and applying them to navigate new and challenging situations. Adapting to new circumstances based on an understanding of what has (and hasn't) worked in other situations is at the heart of the lessons of experience. The strength of experience-driven leaders is that they combine their ability to learn from experience with an ability to apply what they have learned. Put another way, the experience-driven leader has “learned how to learn.”
ACTIVELY SEARCH FOR PARALLELS AND CONNECTIONS
In new situations, you don't have direct experiences to guide you. Instead, reference indirect or even seemingly unrelated experiences. What about them might be applicable to the current challenge you are facing? You never know what analogies might exist and what solutions might emerge.
FOCUS ON THE FAMILIAR
When facing a new challenge, it's easy to get overwhelmed by all that is different about it. Instead, focus on what you've done in the past that is somehow like the current experience. What helped you in those situations that might apply to the current one? One experience-driven leader referred to this practice as “improvising from a base of strength.”
TRUST YOUR INTUITION
New and challenging experiences are characterized by ambiguity. When problems themselves aren't clear, neither are the solutions. Relax the need to come up with “the” answer and trust your instincts to guide you toward “an” answer to start you down the path to better insight and better solutions.
“TRUST YOUR INSTINCT TO THE END, THOUGH YOU CAN RENDER NO REASON.”
— RALPH WALDO EMERSON
MYTH: PROBLEMS HAVE “BEST” SOLUTIONS.
TRUTH: PROBLEMS HAVE “BETTER” SOLUTIONS. FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF AN EXPERIENCE-DRIVEN LEADER, “BEST” SOLUTIONS, TO THE EXTENT THEY EVEN EXIST, ARE TEMPORARY IN NATURE. SINCE MOST OF THE PROBLEMS THEY ENCOUNTER ARE FUZZILY DEFINED, HOW CAN THERE BE CERTAINTY REGARDING THE SOLUTIONS? FURTHERMORE, WHEN THE PROBLEM IS DYNAMIC IN NATURE AND CONSTANTLY EVOLVING, SO MUST THE PURSUIT OF A SOLUTION. FOR EXPERIENCE-DRIVEN LEADERS, STRIVING FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT AND FRESH INSIGHT TRIUMPHS OVER ESTABLISHING “BEST” PRACTICES.
CARRY ON
In unfamiliar circumstances, first solutions rarely work. Sometimes second, third, and fourth solutions don't either. Persevere and remain resourceful to generate alternative approaches and gain insight from each attempt. Focus on the learning that occurs, not the frustration. Grit and tenacity will get you through!
BUILD YOUR OWN BRAND OF RESOURCEFULNESS
Everyone is different. Look at what's unique about you and how you approach hurdles. Over? Under? Around? Through? Over time, your signature style will start to emerge.
“PERSEVERANCE IS FAILING 19 TIMES AND SUCCEEDING THE 20TH.”
— JULIE ANDREWS
If you are without a solution, explore unlikely combinations to stimulate new insights. Don't be afraid to be a little ridiculous or unrealistic. Do a “cocktail napkin” sketch of what this new solution might look like and see what thinking it inspires in others. Then see what new perspective you might have gained on the challenge you're facing.
STIMULATE YOUR SENSES
Sometimes we think about problems and solutions in overly literal terms and get fixated. Find inspiration and reinvigorate your imagination by temporarily shifting your attention to metaphorical representations of the challenge you are facing. Images, films, stories, music, even smells—all can unlock something in your awareness to give you a new perspective and the ability to generate fresh solutions.
MEASURE LEARNING AND PROGRESS
Addressing new and challenging problems is typically a long journey. Frustration comes easily when you are only measuring yourself against the eventual outcome you are seeking. Instead, focus on the progress you've made from the beginning and what you've learned. Having and recognizing a few “early wins” is beneficial to navigating the long road ahead.
MYTH: INSIGHTS “REVEAL” THEMSELVES.
TRUTH: INSIGHTS NEED TO BE COAXED OUT OF THE SITUATION. BEYOND JUST SORTING OUT WHAT HAPPENED AND WHY IT DIDN'T WORK, EXPERIENCE-DRIVEN LEADERS RE-THINK THE PROBLEM TO SEE WHAT THEY CAN LEARN FROM THEIR EFFORTS, INCLUDING WHAT THEY ARE LEARNING ABOUT THEMSELVES.
SHOE LEATHER: THE BUSINESS FOOTING OF NATASHA BARBER
What on earth do IT, strategy, innovation, finance, and children's motor-skill development have in common? One answer is the career of Natasha Barber, an Australian entrepreneur who applied her academic and IT leadership skills to create SKEANIE Shoes for Kids, an online store whose product line has achieved global reach.
Barber, today a design-industry thought leader, was trained in financial services and began her career running her own IT management projects, then opened a brokerage. Becoming a new mother opened her entrepreneur's eyes to a gap in Australia's clothing market: the kind of affordably-priced, quality leather shoes she had bought for her baby in Denmark.
This was the inspiration for SKEANIE, which allowed Barber to apply her background in web development, management, and finance to e-commerce. The result of her hybrid skillset—academic, business, and leadership—was a multilayered approach that integrated Barber's philosophy across departments, so that operations, sales, and marketing functioned seamlessly.
“To be a successful business owner, you need to be courteous but also conscious of employees and have a long-term vision,” said Barber, whose company also supplies 160 stores in Europe, Singapore, and the United States.
“I have always been a big believer in wrapping yourself up with people who help inspire change, create a movement, and make you to be the best person (both business and professionally) you can be.”
Following Barber's example, how might you draw from the diverse experiences of your past and the inspiration of those around you to create entirely new solutions?
The toolset for applying the lessons of experience also incorporates some of the insights from Chapter 7. Though we've presented sensemaking and applying as separate skills, they often occur simultaneously and reinforce one another. The end result is a special combination of meaning-making and behavior that is all about being in the moment and taking fluid action as you wrestle with an immediate challenge.
The questions below draw off the curious notions that fuel both sensemaking and applying and unite them into an integrated approach to inquiry that allows you to embrace a current learning situation to its fullest.
MYTH: LEADERS MUST CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN.
TRUTH: THERE ARE LIMITS TO WHAT THEY CAN DO, AND THESE LIMITS ARE HUMBLING BUT NOT DISCOURAGING. EXPERIENCE-DRIVEN LEADERS ADOPT A LONG-TERM VIEW AND RECOGNIZE THEY'VE MADE A CONTRIBUTION TO MEETING THE CHALLENGE THAT OTHERS WILL SOMEDAY COMPLETE.
MAKING THE MOST OF THE HERE AND NOW
How am I feeling about this challenge? How is that affecting my behavior?
How are others feeling/behaving?
Who can help give me perspective on the challenge?
How can I approach this with a beginner's mindset?
How might I frame it differently?
How can I probe for more insight? (“Why...?” “How...?” “What if...?”)
How might I go about experimenting with solutions?
How am I making progress? What am I learning as I go?
What is my intuition telling me?
What does this situation remind me of?
What experiences in my past might inform my approach to this challenge?