From Whose Perspective?

I recently conducted a series of Innovation & Creativity Seminar in Hong Kong & China as part of a joint effort between TUV Rheinland (China) & Centre of Organisational Excellence (Singapore).

One of the most intriguing and insightful feebacks I gained was from Mr Wong Kin Hung, Sky Technology Co. Ltd (Hong Kong). Although throughout the workshop, he appeared passively uninvolved with the group activities, after the workshop he came forward to thank me for triggering a mindset shift as well as a list of possible solutions that may help him to resolve a critical challenge he faced in his company. All simply done through the use of a YO-YO.

Mr Wong highlighted two very useful insights of his yo-yo learning experience:

1) Power of Mindfulness

Although he appeared very detached during the seminar, he explained that it was because he was actually deeply thinking or 'mindfully' focussed. He further explained that although he was first introduced to the 'mindful' concept by Dr Langer of Harvard University years back, this was the first time he experienced this state of mindfulness so powerfully that he was completely engaged mentally in the process and highly alert to the new learnings. Yet, as he was simultaneously looking at his challenge intensively, he noted that he was intuitively and cognitively very open to the new information that was disseminated during the workshop as well as the multiple perspectives from the conversation of the other group members at his desk.

2) Using Visual Connections to Radically Shift Mindset

What was most exciting was how the Yo-Yo through the activity of Visual Connections got him all started in his 'mindful' experience. When I first asked the participants to write down a challenge that needed some new breakthrough, he was initially reluctant to pen down his thoughts. However, I am thankful he shared this comment with me- "If a strategy really works, then it should be able to deliver the intended outcomes if implemented properly." After which, he wrote down the following- "How to get my clients back?" As he gave the Visual Connection Tool a chance, he simply grabbed the most colorful object on his table- the Yo Yo. As he listed the attributes of the Yo-Yo, he noted adjectives like- smiley face, retractable, colorful, produce clicking sound, etc, he found it easy to immediately connect each of the attributes to some new ideas. He also highlighted that it was initially not easy to observe the divergent ground rule of deferring judgment, he found the act of playing with the object easier to circumvent the mental barrier of not judging the silliness of the activity. However, the experience not only allowed him to deepen his thoughts on pulling out some ideas from each of the attributes but stretched his thinking further when he saw all the attributes as a whole. Excitedly, he shared that a mysterious shift of how he viewed the challenge occurred. With the clicking sound and his shaking motion, he was 'jolted' to a realisation that the past months of working on the problem was from HIS perspective, rather then that of his clients. Just as he felt that he and his team had some futile attempts to regain his clients, the activity led me to a realisation that their vision of the problem is very different from that of his clients. He further explained that some of the solutions that were offered were short term gains that other external factors such as competitors' offering could easily under-cut his discounts. However, the clicking sound led him to think of how to sustain a resonating relationship and how the smiley face got him to go back to the fundamentals of communication- looking at customers' satisfaction. Further, while he was playing with the yo-yo, he realised how inflexible their system was how there need to have an urgent review of their own sales cycle.

To conclude, Mr Wong's sharing led me to realise the common connection between business and learning- the essence of humility. He was humble and open to a new learning experience, even by playing with a simple toy. With mindful attention, even such a simple activity allowed him to re-perceive from his clients' point of view and deepen his own insights into a precious lesson on being more customer-centric. His sharing also showed me how Thinking Tools are great to evoke 'mindful playing'- with discovery of the joy of learning in a thoughtful and focused way.

Quoting from wikipedia (http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Mindfulness)- "Langer defines her version of mindfulness as a "heightened sense of situational awareness and a conscious control over ones thoughts and behavior relative to the situation" (Marzano 2003, p. 65). She explains that mindfulness is not about just paying attention. It is making a conscious effort to be "in the moment" and to not ignore the environment."

Personally, I gained a huge dose of humility and reminded me that I really do have a lot to learn about mindfully improving my craft.