I recently came across a quote that made me reflect and stayed with me ever since.
When you're battling writer's block, read. When you're feeling overwhelmed, write."
This quote offers guidance not only applicable to writers but also addresses a crucial shift in mindset that many of us require.
When we encounter obstacles or unease, our immediate inclination is to find the fastest remedy. Writing serves as a means to engage your mind, accessing your thoughts and subconscious, rather than providing direct answers.
We have been co-creating with a client recently to shape their vision for the Future of Work in the area of leadership succession. This vision involves optimizing the career paths of their top 8% of leaders, roughly 250 individuals globally.
Like many clients, they came to us with a straightforward request: "Can co:grow help us design the best succession plan for these key leaders in the next 2 weeks?" It sounded urgent, rigid, and frankly, uninspiring - for all of us.
But it sounds like the right answers for the whatever the organisation is going through right now.
We decided to take a different approach. Instead of immediately diving into the requested solution and relying on established succession planning best practices, we began by asking profound and uncomfortable questions. Before embarking on our co-creation process, we shift the deep discovery forward.
Deep discovery process sought to understand their deepest fears. Fears, not inspirations, drives predetermined solution. What we often observe when clients arrive with predefined solutions is that these solutions are driven not by inspiration but by a sense of fear.
But they are healthy fear that compels them to seek external support.
Before formulating recommendations and designs, we pondered questions with our clients:
What significant organizational changes have occurred in recent years?
How are these changes reflected in engagement results?
What impact have they had on employee retention?
Where is the organization headed?
What does the alignment and prioritization of products look like?
What has been the pace of promotions in the last two years?
Spoil alert: This is not going to a blog post where we claim to have already found the perfect solution, implemented perfectly, resulting in ecstatic clients and all problems miraculously resolved.
As we are currently diving deeply into analyzing various organizational data, what stands out is the client's newfound patience.
These questions have allowed them to slow down, take a deep breath, and become inspired when envisioning the future of work for their key leaders, without the predetermined solution.
Now, we are poised to reimagine the Future of Work and co-create it together.