My last post, on “optimism about the future”, brought in quite a few replies. Most of them came down to two questions: How do you steer your attention toward the positive? And how do you get out of the problem trance? I’ll pick up that ball, because current events make the topic more important than ever. How “bad” the world looks to us affects not just our lives but also our daily work, our projects and our companies. So let’s look at five ways of focus control: pattern interrupters, the body, a look at gratitude and what you’ve achieved, a news detox and the improv principle “Yes, exactly, and”. They work in a workshop just as well as in your own daily life.
Pattern Interrupters: Breaking the Problem Trance
First we need to end the problem trance! The resigned stare at the fly in the soup has to be broken. What helps here is interrupting the pattern. When the naysayers in a workshop huddle together and wind each other up about why this or that can’t possibly work: take a break. Everyone outside with their coffee. Or “accidentally” let the pinboard crash to the floor. Or watch cat videos on Insta together. Or tell a joke … In a one-on-one coaching session, I once flicked water in the face of a client who had been describing her problem trance for 20 minutes. The laughter that followed was exactly the interruption she needed.
Use Your Posture to Shift Focus
The body is a good tool for steering focus. Someone standing upright and open simply can’t be in as bad a mood as someone slumped at the meeting table. That’s one reason dailies are held standing up. Walking is even better, because it gets our thoughts moving. The mind follows the body.
What Have I Achieved Today?
Over the course of evolution, the way we evaluate what we perceive has been tuned to weigh the negative more heavily than the positive. That makes sense, too, when there’s a saber-toothed tiger in front of you: running away was usually the better option than admiring its fur. These days, situations like that are fairly rare. To give the positive more weight, we have two options. Focus on things
- that we are grateful for,
- that we have achieved or created.
Many biographies of successful and optimistic people describe exactly this: in their diaries, they wrote down again and again what they were grateful for and what they had done well that day. And look at that, there’s a similar question in the daily meeting. I wonder why 😉 And if gratitude feels too esoteric for you, try: What do I really like right now?
A News Detox for Your Mood
Just as helpful: cut out the bad news. If you follow the live tickers of the latest crises from early morning, discuss them over your coffee break and go to bed with the late-night news, don’t be surprised if you’re in a bad mood. The media figured out long ago that bad news works better than good news. And on social media you find the exact opposite: on Facebook everyone else is on vacation, on Insta everyone is always eating somewhere fancy, and on LinkedIn everyone is shining with business wins. That comparison doesn’t make you optimistic either.
So: slow down, switch off. Stay informed, but don’t let it blare at you all day.
Focus Control in Workshops: “Yes, Exactly! And…”
There’s an exercise I know from improv theater. Two people play experts, for example on bubble wrap. Then come two rounds:
E1 muses: “Bubble wrap is a wonderful way to protect potted plants over winter.”
E2 counters: “No, then everything gets moldy.”
E1: “But you can put on great popping concerts with bubble wrap.”
E2: “And then you end up with a ton of trash.” …
Second round:
E1: “Bubble wrap is a wonderful way to protect potted plants over winter.”
E2: “Yes, exactly, and if you lay it out across the floor, it makes a funny popping sound when you walk.”
E1: “Yes, exactly, and if we make the bubbles even bigger, we’ve got a bouncy castle!”
E2: “Yes, exactly, and if we make them bigger still, we can build little tiny houses inside.”
…
See the difference? A “no” and a “but” stop the story and the positive thinking along with it. A “Yes, exactly, and …” brings in completely new ideas and possibilities.
Now think back to your last brainstorming session or workshop and imagine the wealth of new and innovative ideas that could have come out of it! Yes, including odd, crazy and impossible ones. But as the saying goes: “Everyone said it couldn’t be done. Then someone came along who didn’t know that and just did it.”
