Let's have a chat ... is it?

“Hi Mam what’s for lunch today please?” I said as soon as I walked in the door.

“Well at least I got a Hi before the big question of the day I suppose” she said with a smile.

“Dare I ask how was your week in your techno world?”

“Mam I don’t know where you picked up the word Techno but please never use it again!” I said lifting the lid on the nearest saucepan.

“To be honest Mam, not a good one, but I can’t quite put my finger on why? I have been slowing my mind down as you and Dad suggested, I have even started noticing when I’m up in my head and the “Thoughtometer” is pushing into the red!” I said with a sigh.

“Ok I’ll never use Techno again if you promise never to say “Thoughtometer” overthinking is probably a better term”

“OK Mam it’s a deal .. now this week, I haven’t been angry, I haven’t been too egotistical … I promise … but the team and I are completely stuck on one of our major projects. We have been working all hours, researching, analysing, running simulations and still no sign of a breakthrough. I mean we have the best brains in the company on this, these girls and guys can usually fix anything but not this. We have the past experience and access to just about any other resource in the company. I’m thinking of swapping some of the people out as maybe they are not as smart as I thought they were….bla ...bla...bla.”

“There he blows!” Mam said with a chuckle. “I think it was Albert Einstein who said Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

“Mam, I’m being serious here so it’s not time for one of your famous quotes!”

“Oh OK son well lunch is a roast so roll your sleeves up and start peeling the potatoes and “Let’s have a chat ...is it?”

As always that phrase signalled it was time to slow down as heartfelt guidance was sure to follow.

“Now may I suggest that if you have tried “fixing” the problem using the might and power of intellect more than once, maybe there is a better way .. that doesn’t involve changing the team and trying again … have you or the team had any “Insights” into why things are going the way you would like?”

“Mam, I’m sure we do, we are all smart people” I said, a little annoyed.

“Is that so, OK son tell me what an insight is and how do you know if you have had one?”

“Insight is having a good intellectual understanding of a situation and seeing it in a new light I guess?” It being more of a question than a statement.

“As always son you are halfway there, the way I see it insight isn’t an intellectual understanding but it can shed new light on any situation”

“Mam I’m proud of my intellect. I have worked hard building it, spent years as an apprentice and in university learning and listening so please don’t tell me that intellect isn’t important!”

“Ok Mr Ego …. I didn’t say learning and listening aren’t important. You learnt to walk and talk that way but then you were taught to listen and learn for intellectual understanding and your innate ability to have insights clouded over, but the good news is that it never goes away.”

“Mam there you go with the innate stuff again, I have to listen to the team and collect information on which we make decisions and solve problems.”

“Well and I’m just guessing here …. but that’s collecting information to verify and build on what you already know isn’t it? So you tend to listen and make decisions.”

“Of course Mam that’s how it works I ask for opinions and views and that’s how we solve things.”

“Really … but do you listen for information or insight? If you are listening for information you will automatically be making decisions as you go. Do I agree, does it make sense, will it work etc. Getting all up in your head and then your mind isn’t free to do what it does best … generate clear new thinking, or as you put it shining a new light on the problem. Insight is as natural to the mind as breathing is to the body. You can have a new insight at any time as you can have new thinking at any time, that is if you can clear a space in that busy mind of yours?”

“Soooo we are back to thinking again Mam… but can you give me an example of listening for insight not information please?”

“Yes I can son, how about listening to music? I’m hoping you don’t sit and listen to decide if the notes are in the right order, if the rhythm is correct, do you?”

“Of course not!”

“Good just checking, hopefully you listen and you feel the music and you listen to be impacted. So in the project meeting do you listen for information or impact? Because the insights you so clearly need won’t be found in the information, they will come from insights you and the team have. .. and before you ask there is no “Insight Fairy” who can give out insights or indeed a method or process you can follow. You can’t plan for insight but you can really get in the way. If you just try and understand that insight is innate, the more you look in that direction the more likely they are to happen. Only an insight can change the way life looks to you, only an insight can bring the fresh thinking you and the team so clearly need.”

“OK Mam, I’m not disagreeing but how will I know if I have had an insight?”

“Good question, but as I won’t be having your insight I don’t really know how you will know … let’s just say it’s a feeling, it brings a calm and clarity, a kind of “A Ha” moment when you know it’s right and you can’t imagine why you hadn’t spotted it before. When you and your team uncover an insight the view of the situation changes and the solution will emerge. This is the core creativity we all have hardwired within us.”

“Mam if it was that easy why bother studying and learning, let's just all sit in a circle and hum and all the solutions will just fall into our laps!” I said rather dismissively.

“Now I didn’t say we don’t have to learn, I am talking about an ADDITIONAL resource at your disposal which you mostly overlook because most your education and training encourages you to look into your mental storeroom for models, strategies and solutions. When you were young, insights were natural and even ordinary because you were less burdened by the busy mind you have now. You know this is true as you have witnessed children coming up with comments and thoughts that are well beyond their years, something that they haven't had the time to learn.”

“So Mam once again you are suggesting I slow things down and look inside for insight? A Ha I guess that’s why they call it IN SIGHT .. a view from within.” I said proudly.

“Well I guess that would be a good start… Now do you remember when Dad showed you how that robin would land in his hand to feed and you always wanted it to land on you but it never did … the difference … Dad slowed down, he was calm and he let the robin come to him … where as you spent the afternoon running around screaming at the poor thing to come and get the food!”

“Now talking of food, at the rate you are peeling those potatoes we will be having lunch for dinner, so less chat more action!"