As we transition out of the pandemic, some of your team members may be gung-ho and ready to go—while others are more cautious and uncertain. Both responses are perfectly normal and understandable. In her June 21 “Your Best Next Move” video, Bobbie LaPorte explains how taking the “enterprise view” can help everyone feel connected to a higher goal.
TRANSCRIPT OF “YOUR BEST NEXT MOVE: TAKING THE ENTERPRISE VIEW”
Hi, everyone. Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly tips for “Your Best Next Move,” where I help you have more agency in your work, acknowledge your capacity to act, and see what you can do right now.
Right now it’s 90 degrees here in Lake Tahoe, so I hope you’re staying cool wherever you are!
If you’ve been following this weekly video tip series for a while, you’ve probably heard me talk about taking the “Enterprise View.” Doing that can be very useful to connect people to a greater goal or when you’re presenting your ideas to senior management. And now, as we’re coming out of the pandemic, taking the Enterprise View is more important than ever.
Right now, people are in different places in this transition. Some are gung-ho to quickly move forward, looking to get this show going again, and to reconnect and start collaborating with colleagues on deferred initiatives.
Others are more cautious, not sure if they want to jump right back in, whether it’s for their own personal safety or if they’re uncomfortable emerging out of the often siloed state that we’ve all been operating in.
The term for this is liminal, which means the place that defines the end of one stage and the beginning of another one. And that’s where many of us are right now. And we also know from neuroscience that when people are anxious, unsure when they’re facing uncertainty, they tend to isolate themselves, to hunker down, and take a go-it-alone mentality. And right now that’s not beneficial to anyone.
So now, more than ever, we need everyone’s experience, their skills, their perspectives to address the complex problems that companies will be facing in the coming weeks and months. We also know the connecting to a higher goal activates the parasympathetic nervous system. That’s the neural network that connects a part of our brain that’s responsible for creativity, inspiration, and seeing what’s possible.
This Week’s Tip
So with all that is context, here is my tip this week. Whether you’re in a one-on-one conversation with a team member, making a presentation to other leaders in your company, or reconnecting with a peer, take the Enterprise View in your conversation. It could be about clients you’re serving or about the objectives of the business. Or it could be connecting the people you’re talking to about the mission and the values of the company. After all, that’s likely one of the reasons they joined the company in the first place.
Doing this will help elevate their focus to the reason that you’re all working together and see what the impact and the response could be. Your brain is a powerful instrument to help people see what is possible, and there is no better time than to take the Enterprise View NOW and make that happen.
I want 2021 to be a year momentum for you…one of possibility thinking, where you take advantage of the agency we sometimes forget we have. So that’s my tip for this week. I’ll see you next week. Take care of yourself. Stay cool!