GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE GAME!

BOARDROOM LESSONS FROM THE CHESS BOARD

Common wisdom culminates in sayings like: "Get your head in the game", which usually means "Focus!". Focussed analytics are important as your baseline, but chess teaches you that you often need more, if you want to survive the next move. You look at the board, you run the analytics, but you still have that unsettling feeling. Having a rich source of failures to draw on, I have learnt that what I have actually ignored, was my opponent setting up a strategy for my demise. So when you feel that cue, it may be time to get your head out of the game, and access more perspectives.

The key lies in our ability to be both the participant and observer at the same time. By accessing all the information available to us from both these perspectives, we can make decisions that are based on analytics, shaped by context and guided by intuition.

1.) TRUST YOUR GUT: Early on in life, chess taught me to trust my gut. That unsettling feeling in the pit of your tummy tells you that you are looking at something, which you have not yet seen. Intuition is the unconscious process of drawing on years’ experience, decisions and outcomes, and then arriving at a conclusion. Don't always over-ride your intuition, just because it does not seem rational. Rather, think of intuition as your long-term analytic's short-cut key. The more you allow your intuition to inform your baseline analytics, the more you will learn to trust it!

2.) LOOK WITH OTHERS' EYES: One of the big no-no's during chess, was to comment on other peoples' game, beacuase the outsider has the unfair advantage of operating without prejudice, free from blind-sights and with clarity regarding both sides of the game. We can also access this unfair outsider's advantage, by zooming out or actively imagining the situation from a neutral vantage point. This often leads us to new perspectives, where we start seeing patterns and processes, as opposed to seeming random moves.

3.) WALK THE FLOOR: During a tense chess manoeuvre, it was not strange to suddenly make up an excuse to use the bathroom. This was always an opportunity to get up, look at the board from a different perspective and move away from the problem. Many of us are kinaesthetic learners, and we allow ourselves to be confined by cognitive or visual problem solving. Physical movement helps you to process differently, more creatively and gain other perspectives.

Tick-tock - your move!