Apply the resilient practice of possibility

- The practice of possibility is focused, first and foremost, on progress over perfection. When facing difficulty, fear and uncertainty, many people become more rigid, take fewer risks and are more careful. Sometimes they even become perfectionists, but attempting to be perfect is a terrible way to navigate change, disruption and uncertainty. When you're working in an uncertain and ever-changing landscape, you'll be very far from perfect. Also, buying into perfection is the opposite of productive problem solving. When we endeavor to make change and break new ground, perfection will never be an ideal that allows us to expand and innovate. In marketplaces and moments characterized by change, disruption and uncertainty, perfection will never be a luxury we will find when we effectively navigate these landscapes. The second part of the practice of possibility is being able to navigate the paradox of both risk and opportunity that exists anytime we face challenges. Most of us tend to naturally be better at seeing risk or opportunity. The key is to learn to acknowledge both the risks and the opportunity in any situation. But expanding your capacity for risk and opportunity isn't easy to do. Here are two strategies to help you see both the risk and the opportunity more clearly. The first one is get comfortable getting uncomfortable. Most of us enjoy our comfort zone. To expand our tolerance for both risk and opportunity, we get to expand our growth edges into what I like to call our performance zone. Here are some strategies to move out of our comfort zone and into our performance zone. First, seek out other people who have different perspectives than your own and ask them to explain their position or beliefs so you can learn from them. Another way to do this is to make it a routine to ask for feedback from others. Be very specific and say, "What feedback do you have for me?" or, "Can you share with me one thing I did well and one thing I can improve on?" You can also visualize reaching a goal. A lot of people who tend to be more comfortable with risk, this means they're less risky and less comfortable with the unknown and uncertainty of a new opportunity. And this can allow the presence of risk to keep them from achieving their goals. By visualizing your goals, you train your mind that what you envision is possible. You can also write down the possibilities. This one's fun. It's easy to lean on what's worked in the past and not try new approaches or solutions. So challenge yourself and your team members to write down 20 possible solutions to a problem, and then review what you wrote down together. Typically, the first five ideas are pretty similar. The next five to 10 get a little wacky. And at about 15 or 16, you start uncovering some pretty innovative and new solutions. You can also in team meetings identify one or two team members whose job it is to listen closely to the conversation and point out the places where the team may be missing some information or need more information. By anointing a different member of the team to listen and bring forward what no one else is saying. You train your team to have more honest, authentic and meaningful conversations. The second strategy is to learn to face and talk about fear. I think fear gets a bad rap. Fear is an incredible motivator and driver for both individuals and teams. The presence of fear is also a prerequisite to demonstrate bravery and courage. I shared with you at the beginning of this course that I'm dyslexic, and that means that I get to look at the world in a very different way, and look very closely at words to ensure I'm reading them correctly. What I noticed is the word for scared and the word for sacred are basically the same word, just with the C in a different place. And this observation got me thinking about fear in a very different way. Often, when we feel afraid of the risk of what could go wrong or the opportunity of what could go right, we find ourselves believing that the presence of fear is a reason not to do something. But what if we flipped the script on fear? What if what scares us is meant to be something not that we run from, but something we run toward? What if in the wisdom of the English language, what scares us is meant to be our most sacred opportunity for development and growth? When we see fear as necessary for bravery and courage, when we see fear as an invitation to run toward an opportunity rather than to run in the opposite direction, we see fear not as something that needs to scare us, but more so the presence of this emotion demonstrates that we have a sacred opportunity for our greatest development, growth and advancement.