Unearthing the Gold: What’s your Unofficial CV?
PATTERN BREAKING
Like most facilitators or trainers, I start workshops with a round of intros. But, as with any exercise, I like to use the introduction to make a point:
I let people start.
Almost without fail, the second person to speak picks up on the categories chosen by the first: name, time in company and role, or something along those lines.
And the third follows suit.
I stop the 3rd or 4th person and ask about the pattern that has just been established. They see it.
The challenge I then give the group is to constrain their thinking and ‘ban’ any categories that have been taken.
If someone has shared their hobby. It’s gone.
If you get the number of kids. That’s it, no one else can say that.
If they tell the group where they were born. No one else can give their pedigree…
People divulge things about them that they wouldn’t otherwise. They get creative. People have a laugh and learn more about colleagues they possibly thought they knew.
It’s a fun exercise that allows me to segue way nicely to:
- Our tendency to follow a pattern and stick with the known — and the importance of breaking this pattern. This takes us to a major innovation inhibitor: cognitive fixedness (our tendency to get stuck in the way we see structures, functions and relationships and our inability to imagine alternatives). This is the family of biases so powerfully busted by my go-to method, Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT). The guys from SIT were the ones who first played this party trick on me.
- Secondly, the power of constraints. By restricting what they can say, they are ‘forced’ to dig deeper and unearth more interesting sides of themselves. Creativity loves constraints.
- And a deeper premise that I hold dearly which is that we are richer than we think. There is gold in them there shadows!
AN UNOFFICIAL CV
When we interact, we tend to resort to about 15 bits of information. These are our ‘go tos’. It is simple, efficient and often sufficient.
But the things that make us most interesting is not often in that list…
Sometimes the situation calls for the pragmatic 15 bits but in a world that is so curated, kept-in-check and photoshopped, I really wish people would share their quirks, the paradoxes and the endearing stuff; the things that shaped them. The warts and so-called weaknesses. The good, the bad and the ugly. It might be more interesting and would certainly be more real.
I like the idea of us having some sort of an ‘Unofficial CV’.
The structure might be something like this:
In Short [What would be a different summary of you?]
e.g. I am an honest, no B.S., can-do person who thrives on connection and struggles with folk who play it hot & cold. I am a challenger and love the power of the 2 words: “So what?” …
Work experiences that shaped you. The challenges, the setbacks, the ah hah moments that: [Not the stuff you usually put out there]
e.g. My first casual job as a teen was at KFC. I came home smelling of sweet corn and other hard-to-describe things. I learnt the art of customer service and dealing with tough customers…
Something specific that forged my character [What personal things have defined you in life and work?]
e.g. We moved around the country with Dad’s work. I had to learn to make good friendships fast…
My paradoxes [What interesting tensions do you work with?]
e.g. I’m extraverted but crave one-on-one time with people. I use my intuition but I love things that are counter-intuitive…
Hidden qualities [What characterises you that you don’t often talk about?]
e.g. Resourceful creative. I delight in creating ideas, disguises, moods and meals using only what I have. I get clients to do this too…
What would be one quirky thing you would include in your unofficial CV?
#unofficialCV #keepitreal #daretothinkdifferently #lovethequirks #unearthingthegold #wearericherthanwethink
