At one time or another, most of us have heard this timeless wisdom from someone coaching us on an underutilized or dormant skill:
“IT'S JUST LIKE RIDING A BICYCLE.”
Such a reassuring thought. No matter how rusty we might be in the performance of a skill, once we get started, something equal to muscle memory will engage and the whole operation will come naturally and effortlessly.
There's just one assumption, of course:
WE LEARNED TO RIDE A BICYCLE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
If this is indeed true, think back to what the experience of learning to ride a bike was like.
Probably, it was combination of things. At the outset we were motivated and determined to try, because the possibilities of speed and mobility were clearly worth any scraped knees. Next, naturally, we fell down and scraped our knees. Then we got up and pondered our mistakes. Gradually, through repeated efforts, we got a handle on the basics. We had to keep the bicycle moving forward, watch where we were going, not make sharp turns, use the brakes and maybe enlist someone to run alongside us with a steadying hand until we found our balance.
So what happened along the journey from tumbling over our handlebars to coasting along on two wheels?
Consciously or not, we made sense out of the experience, gaining not just a new skill but also insight into our capacity to improve and make things happen.
WHAT WE'LL CALL SENSEMAKING IS A KEY PROCESS IN CULTIVATING EXPERIENCE-BASED WISDOM, BECAUSE LEARNING IS SOMETHING WE ACTIVELY SEEK, AND SOMETHING THAT BUILDS ON ITSELF.
Having rediscovered our past in the previous unit, let's now take a closer look at the active and immersive process we use to gain real-time insight into our development. Before we unpack the contents of the mindset, skillset, and toolset involved in sensemaking, a quick self-assessment will provide a personal baseline.
Consider the following behaviors that typify a leader who excels at sensemaking. Of the ten behaviors, identify the three that you feel you are currently strongest in and the corresponding three that you feel are most in need of development.
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.
“WITHOUT EXPERIMENTATION, A WILLINGNESS TO ASK QUESTIONS AND TRY NEW THINGS, WE SHALL SURELY BECOME STATIC, REPETITIVE, AND MORIBUND.”
— ANTHONY BOURDAIN
We've established that successful leaders are made, not born. Successful leaders develop by learning from their experiences. So how do people open themselves to what a learning experience has to offer?
BE A TRAVELER, NOT A TOURIST
A traveler doesn't visit new places as a spectator but becomes immersed in the experience and opens oneself to the possibility of being changed by it. Seeking adventure as an everyday mindset (rather than a holiday from what we do the majority of the time) is a different way of engaging the world. It opens the door to surprise, inspiration, and innovation.
You don't necessarily need to travel far in order to see things differently. A journalist we once knew advised novice reporters to venture outside their routines (and their comfort zones) in search of news. Covering new ground applied to life at work and outside work, she observed.
TAKE A DIFFERENT WAY TO GET TO THE OFFICE. TALK TO THE PERSON IN LINE BEHIND YOU AT THE BANK, AND THE TELLER WHO WAITS ON YOU, TOO. TRY A NEW SANDWICH PLACE AT LUNCH. LISTEN TO A DIFFERENT RADIO STATION. IF YOU ONLY GO PLACES YOU KNOW, AND ONLY TALK TO THE CIRCLE OF PEOPLE YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH, HOW WILL YOU LEARN ANYTHING NEW?
MYTH: ALL RISKS ARE WORTH TAKING.
TRUTH: YOU NEED TO EVALUATE THE RISK RELATIVE TO THE LEARNING YOU ANTICIPATE FROM THE EXPERIENCE.
VOICES OF EXPERIENCE
RIDHIKA PIRAMAL: UNPACKING THE “GOOD OLD SUITCASE”
What happens when the Indian economy is opened to the world, and your family's revered, name-brand luggage threatens to get lost in a multinational onslaught of frequent flyers like Samsonite? For Radhika Piramal, who in 2010 became managing director of her father's company, VIP Industries, the world's second largest luggage brand, it was time to reimagine and transform.
Knowing that the good old days of a 70 percent market share were unsustainable, Piramal studied the needs of young travelers and repositioned the flagship line. First came the launch of lightweight, brightly colored polycarbonate luggage with four wheels for easy mobility. With the emphasis on style and agility, the company used TV spots featuring youthful Bollywood stars chasing down city streets in Europe. The new Skybags became the fastest growing brand in India.
But even with a new line for business travelers, Piramal's instinct told her that “long haul” luggage, the traditional purview of her father's company, was too limited, because travelers don't buy luggage that often. The more frequent purchases were backpacks and other day bags designed for the office, with features like laptop protection and comfortable shoulder straps. Moreover, there was money to be made in women's designer bags. Connecting these factors drove the thinking behind the Caprese division, using trends from Milan. For VIP's product development, it was about thinking outside the “good old suitcase,” and about being quick to spot trends and react to them.
“WE HAVE TRANSFORMED OUR PRODUCTS ACROSS ALL BRANDS,” PIRAMAL SAID, “GETTING THE RIGHT PRODUCT TO THE MARKET.”
Piramal didn't approach her problem passively or tentatively. She took it straight on and delved beneath the surface for insight, shifting her perspective and shifting her actions as new aspects of the problem came to light.
How might Piramal's situation and her approach to sensemaking inform how you address urgent threats your business is currently facing?
Like a new reporter learning where to look for stories, and like Piramal's effort to think outside established parameters, you can also approach the world with the curiosity and fresh perspective of a traveler to a new destination. There is language to learn, culture to understand, a different currency to figure out. Nothing is assumed or taken for granted, and sometimes you will get things wrong.
Adopting a beginner's mindset requires humility and acceptance of a degree of uncertainty. It's like arriving at the airport in a new city. We might board the wrong bus. We might lack the exact fare. We might get lost. But that's all part of the journey, and sooner or later, we will get where we are going—often with a memorable story to tell. Rather than set out to demonstrate our knowledge and competency, or seek to confirm our preconceptions, we instead reveal our aptitude for embracing the unexpected. The novice mindset is to observe, ask questions, engage in playful experimentation, and be interested in the answers. Novices might just as easily say, “I've never done this before but why not give it a try?”
ANTICIPATE LEARNING
Vigilant sensemaking requires mental preparedness. Say you have an opportunity to embark on a new experience—an international assignment, rotation into a different role, or working on an interdepartmental team. Envision the possibilities by asking yourself
WHAT NEW CHALLENGES AM I FACING?
WHAT MIGHT I LEARN FROM THEM?
WHICH PAST EXPERIENCES MIGHT BE USEFUL TO ME?
EXPLOIT AMBIGUITY
Creativity requires freedom to find new approaches. Situations without rigid instructions—or perhaps no instruction manual at all—are the very situations that give us room to invent. Rather than feeling inhibited by the absence of a problem with a clear solution, we can actually feel liberated to define the question on our own terms and seek an answer that suits our needs.
“LOOK AT SITUATIONS FROM ALL ANGLES, AND YOU WILL BECOME MORE OPEN.”
— DALAI LAMA
MYTH: PEOPLE WHO ARE AGILE LEARNERS EXCEL AT EVERYTHING.
TRUTH: AGILE LEARNERS ARE GENERALISTS MORE SO THAN EXPERTS, AND TEND TO BE VERSATILE AND ADAPTABLE.
SWITCH LENSES
Ever tried on a pair of eyeglasses that belongs to someone else? Disorienting, isn't it? But in a sense, this is similar to what effective leaders do when sizing up a problem. They look at it through multiple lenses—for example, that of an employee, a customer, a supplier, a competitor. These leaders make themselves comfortable with the disorientation. Gradually, the blurriness subsides and a clear picture emerges. They also apply different “lens coatings,” such as cultural or disciplinary (for instance, management, marketing, or engineering). Today's challenges seldom reveal themselves in a single glance and often have multiple layers. Successfully addressing these problems requires us to change the way we look at them.
GET STARTED
So what now? We anticipated the learning potential of the challenge, accepted its ambiguity, and sized it up from various perspectives. The next step is to dive in, which is sometimes the best way to see what works and settle on a strategy. Rapid prototyping is one way to do that. Begin with a pilot project and execute small-scale experiments that help you develop clarity and confidence. Test your theory in real time, and if the experiment fails, fail fast and make adjustments as you go.
“IF YOU ARE BUILDING A HOUSE AND A NAIL BREAKS, DO YOU STOP BUILDING OR DO YOU CHANGE THE NAIL?”
— RWANDAN PROVERB
While making sense of a situation, we often experience a running, in-process dialogue with our teammates and ourselves. What is important here? What are we sensing and feeling? What do our instincts and gut reactions tell us? These aren't yes-or-no questions designed to get facts or force snap judgments. Underlying this constant questioning is a search for new approaches to everyday problems. A few techniques can help us practice this skill.
- TRY SOMETHING NEW. Repeating the same process and the same way of doing things doesn't leave room for new possibilities. Be intentionally experimental and monitor what works and what doesn't. Resist the inertia of old routines or of falling into new routines.
- QUESTION TRADITION. Conventional thinking—“That's the way we've always done it”—is not always the most efficient or effective way to solve problems. It's just the most firmly entrenched. There could be a better way, and it could be eminently doable. But it can only happen if someone is willing to rethink the status quo.
- REINVENT. Experiment and note the outcome. Sometimes an alternate approach, especially when we lack resources, yields an optimum outcome. Some of the most important discoveries come about by accident.
MYTH: SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE DO WELL AT EVERYTHING THEY TRY.
TRUTH: WHAT DISTINGUISHES SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE IS HOW THEY RESPOND TO FAILURE WITH RESILIENCE, PERSISTENCE, AND WISDOM.
PREPARE YOUR MIND AND BODY FOR LEARNING
When entering a new situation, be mindful of your own outlook and reactions, staying in tune and not losing control. Here are some approaches to try.
TAKE A DEEP BREATH.
Slow, deep, conscious breathing for just five or ten minutes a day supports the ability to concentrate and stay focused, even in stressful situations.
BE POSITIVE.
Negative outlooks can inhibit efforts to work toward creative solutions. Staying optimistic and highlighting the hopeful and even humorous side fosters collaboration.
PRACTICE HUMILITY.
Taking work seriously doesn't mean you have to take yourself too seriously. Showing humility and vulnerability can ease the awkwardness, frustration, and pain of learning situations.
LAUGH.
An occasional laugh cuts the tension others may be experiencing, reduces stress, and promotes resiliency. And the burst of oxygen that laughter requires is good for the brain!
Effective leaders are curious about new situations, and express this by asking probing questions. Their questions are neither random nor superficial but designed to penetrate the surface problem and get at the root causes. When encountering a new and challenging situation, use probing questions to generate insight. One model of questions we call “The Three Ps.”
PURPOSE: “WHY DO WE . . . ?”
PRACTICES: “HOW DO WE . . . ?”
POSSIBILITIES: “WHAT IF WE . . . ?”
The Three Ps aren't limited to one round. Keep forming and reforming these questions until you arrive at the essence of the problem and begin to generate promising solutions.