Creating Discomfort by Design

I love the phrase 'forged by fire'. Being an avid fan of the epic fantasy genre it conjures images of magic and might - legendary weapons and heroes rising Phoenix like from smoking ashes and smouldering embers - strengthened, reformed, remade.

And while total meltdown is seldom recommended in the workplace, it is important to remember that comfort breeds complacency. As people we tend to be find comfort in familiarity. It will be our instinct to cling to a state of order, where both inputs and results are expected and predictable (as per Bill Eckstrom's Four Rings of Growth). While a foundation of order is essential to growth, the danger of lingering overlong in a state of order is that without new stimulus, challenge and the discomfort of the unpredictable, we drift into stagnation. Stagnation is a state of underperformance and negative growth.

A leader seeking to build a high-growth team must continually design a state of complexity - a state which avoids chaos and yet embraces discomfort.

As people, we are most driven in the face of complexities. In the attempt to solve, master, overcome or achieve - however, once this is done, we begin to disengage and our interest begins to wane. That area of attempt is where engagement lives. Without active engagement, individuals and teams cannot perform or grow.

In order for teams and team members to remain engaged in continuous growth and evolution, a certain amount of discomfort and complexity - some element of the forge, is necessary.

While it may be uncomfortable, periodic disruptions that force us to look at new perspectives, try different things, reevaluate ourselves and learn new skills are essential to building and maintaining a strong high-growth team.

High-growth teams are responsive, not reactive. They not only embrace, but leverage discomfort.

Designed discomfort keeps your team engaged, but also agile and adaptable. It allows teams to learn how to respond rather than react.

A leader seeking to build agile, responsive teams must strategically deploy uncomfortable disruptions to hedge against chaos.

Too often the realisation that we have slipped from order to stagnation comes too late - and is a rude awakening that pushes teams far past discomfort and plunges them into chaos. This kind of trigger is almost always reactionary and externally driven.

Viktor E. Frankl famously said "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." This space can only be created through repeated practice. Like the smiths hammer aligns the grain structure of steel to the shape of the sword for a more powerful blade, so leaders must hone their teams with the same persistent, repeated, precise, balanced pressure.

In today's world of increased focus on workplace satisfaction, demand for learning, rapid change, paradigm shifts and accelerated evolution - there may be no better service a leader can offer, than being the fire of the forge.