making progress is hard

Here’s a different way to look at a challenge you face.

It's a bit like sailing. Except without the lapping sound of water and the lung-fulls of fresh sea air.

You can sail against the wind - which is what it’s like in life when we are trying to make a difference, or embed a change, or do something new.

We’re going against the flow, which is why it feels hard. But to sail up-wind – to get to your objective –you can’t go headlong into it. You’ll get nowhere and probably get pushed backward.
Much as in life.

Instead, if you sail off at an angle, you can make forward motion even though you’re still travelling against the prevailing wind. This is a comparison that came to mind while I was reading a book called Obliquity by John Kay. It’s about achieving ideas or change by approaching it indirectly. Obliquely.

I’ll bet there are a few cases in your professional life where an oblique approach would be more effective. Maybe a behavioural solution to a technical problem. Or removing something rather than adding.

But how do you get started, going against the flow? You might have something that you or your team has all the expertise and experience to solve, on paper. But in practice, the headwinds have been too strong. This is when a different kind of experience and expertise can come in useful. An outside perspective. A guide that can read the conditions and point your team to new ways to apply their thinking.

A facilitated workshop gets your team pulling in the same direction, towards a common goal. It also creates the conditions for all extraverts and introverts, and junior and senior colleagues, to contribute equally, without bias.

Then there are the benefits to decision-making and action planning, ensuring you leave with both new ideas and at least the first steps to making them reality.

So, when the world zigs, zag. Try another oblique approach. And maybe invite an expert outsider in to help you change tack and facilitate your team’s oblique thinking to make progress even faster.