Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: unexpected

  • Listen In -> Posture of Strategic Readiness with Van Wray #4: The Built-In Slack

    For those of you who believe in cracking the whip in order to make sure everyone is working as hard as they can every minute that they can, stop reading here. You won’t appreciate this week’s podcast episode.

    In fact, those who keep all their other resources tied up and busy should probably read elsewhere also.

    The reason is simple. In this week’s podcast discussion Van Wray of Amperant Advisors and I take a look at the importance of building some slack into our plans.

    You read it correctly. Slack. Intentionally.

    Not all opportunities or problems can be anticipated.

    What if an unexpected opportunity came along, and we couldn’t respond because all our resources were already committed?

    What about the work stoppage at one of your key suppliers? Now you’re off plan before you’ve even begun.

    Unless, that is, you’ve built slack into your strategic plans.

    How does one plan for the unexpected? How can we plan around what we cannot control?

    Listen in.

    Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Loving Monday: Greeting The Unexpected Intruder

    loving_mondayThe unexpected can sneak up on us like an intruder.

    Even something wonderful can be greeted with a frown simply because it was unexpected. It caught us off guard. We had one thing planned and now the situation has changed.

    How do you react when caught off guard? How do you greet the unexpected?

    When we come to work expecting to work along one set of plans and cannot, we have an adjustment to make. Some of us are better at adjusting than others.

    Today I want to draw our attention to one of our starting assumptions. Is the unexpected an intruder or a friend? Have we been met with a setback or an opportunity?

    Your gut answer to those two questions will help you get deeper insight about why you react to the unexpected the way you do.

    If something bad has happened, then the adjustment process is one of damage control, recovery, and getting back to what you had been doing previously.

    If something good has happened, then the adjustment process is one of triage, learning, and participating in the new creation that is emerging.

    In the one case, the ways of the past and being able to maintain control are the central dynamics.

    In the other case, the possibilities of the future and being able to discern what has value are the central dynamics.

    Reaction, control, preventing damage, and self-protection on the one hand; versus learning, discernment, participation, and new options on the other.

    When the unexpected happens today—and it will—what sort of greeting will you extend? Celebrating a welcome if unpredictable friend or complaining about an unwelcome and troublesome intruder?

    Loving Monday is a weekly column designed to encourage us to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and choose to make it a good week for ourselves. Explore past columns here.

  • Loving Monday: Go With It

    loving_mondayI woke up before my alarm went off this morning. Must have been one of those sleep cycle things. I was wide awake and ready to go.

    I decided to go with it. (As much as part of me was grieving that lost half an hour.) I knew that to resist would make pushing myself out of bed nearly impossible later.

    I must say that I’m a bit pleased with myself. I’m enjoying the refreshed feeling that cooperating with my sleep cycle affords. Instead of battling with myself to get going, “we” are starting out on the same team and actually making some progress.

    I‘m wondering whether this experience applies to other venues. When the unexpected happens can I recognize whether any potential opportunity exists? If I identify potential for good, can I “go with it?”

    Or do instinctive resistances kick in? Do old battles resurface, and, in the name of avoiding a repeat of a previous danger, I, in fact, avoid the receiving the benefit of the current opportunity?

    So what if I don’t normally wake up this early. So what if I go about my day, my work, my conversations differently today or tomorrow or forever more.

    The key is whether I’m alert enough to sense the potential for something good to emerge. The key is whether I am free and flexible enough inside to “go with it.”

    What came up for you this morning that might be worth going with?