Reading The Environment

Reading the environment means noticing and understanding the significance of what's happening in the world around you (e.g. in your team, workplace, business, market, family) and in the world within you (e.g. in your heart, head, body and soul) so that you can make wise choices and take timely action that moves you towards the results you want in the future.

Its benefits are vast. Done well, you spot opportunities and decisions needed, put out fires before there's a problem, make the small choices for growth that arise every day and have immediate impact, know when to wait and make no move, and know when to go for it and make the big, longer-term decisions that can set you (and your business) off on exciting new trajectories.

Reading the environment is an increasingly important skill that helps you generate a fulfilling life, a successful business and a sustainable world. It is crucial in changing conditions where you can't rely on what has come before as a useful indicator of what is to come.

Fast and slow

Sometimes reading the environment can be an in the moment, fast, instinctive, even lifesaving activity.

Take the firefighter in Illinois who ordered his team to get out of a burning building during attempts to put a fire out. Moments later, the floor they had been standing on collapsed. A researcher who studied decision-making spoke to the firefighter afterwards. He discovered that he had noticed three unusual things: the fire was unusually quiet, the room unusually hot and water was not putting out the fire as it usually would. Something in the firefighter new that the fire was also in the basement making it so quiet and the room they were standing in so hot. He read the environment fast and knew the situation was not safe (*).

Other times, reading the environment can be a slow, unfolding process over time, like a client who gradually noticed her heart and soul longing for more purpose and fulfilment, alongside a body saying an increasingly loud 'no' to aspects of her current work and life. As she practiced and learned to listen with love beyond her habitual and often critical ways of relating to herself, others, and possibilities for change, she began to hear and understand the deeper invitations within her situation. Her read of the environment became clearer, her choices wiser and braver, and her actions stronger and more intentional in her quest to move towards a future aligned to the fullness of the woman she was becoming.

What about you?

To gain awareness of how you engage with this crucial skill, recall a time in your life or work when you read your environment well. What was the situation? What factors within you contributed to your accurate read? What factors external to you played a part? How did you know your read was ‘on’? What did it lead to?

Email me at [email protected] with any insights or observations these reflections bring up and that you'd like to share with someone outside your situation.

Notes

(*) Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The power of thinking without thinking (Penguin 2006) pp 122-123

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?? Hello, I'm Amanda Muckalt, and I specialise in helping midlife women in leadership to thrive in change. If you want coaching support in your leadership, check out my menu of SUMMER OFFERS HERE. You can DM me or e-mail me at [email protected] to find out more about one of them or book in.

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