Deadlocked Or Not?

…something the left-front thinking brain keeps turning over in hopes of making sense of “it.” This happens to all of us sometimes. And each of us has his or her own way of settling our brains.

It’s harder when this holding on tight happens in groups. As each individual struggles to make personal sense of the challenge at hand what emerges is group-stuck—a co-created collective negative force field. When, however, a group gathers, willing to hold both the challenge and the possibility of solution, they may find that an excursion into the right parietal lobe leads them back to a point of strategic action refreshed and re-energized.

If the collective work has been shaped with input from the group and is led with the intention of tapping into whatever may be “knowable” among them, then the outcome can move the organization forward in powerful and transforming ways. (I know, it sounds woo-woo, but really it’s no different than play or the way a solution to some problem breaks through to you in the shower.) Collective wisdom work has helped national associations create new metaphors that informs their brand. It’s been instrumental in helping not-for-profit organizations slice through knotty problems. This right-brain approach is appropriate for strategic tasks such as clarifying Vision, Mission or Values. It is a a powerful way to reveal brand essence. It is also, in the hands of an experienced strategic facilitator, a delightful way to get “unstuck.”From my point of view, the sweetest gift in this work, is that each person leaves with a picture of what’s possible. I mean picture in the literal sense— the physical representation created collectively, yes. Perhaps more importantly, within the brain of each participant there is both a living version of that picture (residing in the right brain) AND the track etched by the act of creating it which exists as a new “alternative” path etched in the left brain. Once that picture has been created, it lives—whole and easily referred-to whenever grounding or clarifying direction is called for. So much easier than digging out some dusty written report….and so much quicker. “Ah, right, this is where we’re headed.” Course can be corrected in a heartbeat when the aspirational exists clearly in the holistic, big-picture part of the brain.

Context Matters. I’ll write about that too. Anyone interested?

OH! I realize just now that I have not written about the “spectacular crash.” Hmmmm. That will follow as well.