The Crux of the Problem – It’s Not what you Think
By Cecilia Sepp, CAE, ACNP, LPEC
Earlier this week, I was reminded that when we are too close to something, we don’t see it clearly.
I was participating in a networking group conversation and the topic turned to strategic planning. The person who suggested the topic noted they were getting ready for a strategic planning meeting with their board. Many of the people attending are new to the board, so this person was looking for strategic planning session ideas. It’s always good to look for new ways of doing things so I appreciated the question.
There are many experienced people in the group, both nonprofit staff and nonprofit consultants, and the conversation included many suggestions. What I noticed after a few minutes of the conversation was that everything we suggested, the individual had already done. From board orientation to unstructured conversations to making resources easily available, this person is on top of things and has all the bases covered.
So, what was the real question?
After the conversation ended and I was thinking about it, I realized what the real issue is: this person was facing “Known Unknowns” as Donald Rumsfeld called them. Because new people are in the mix, it’s not clear what to expect.
This is something we all deal with -- the trepidation of not knowing what will happen.
We get used to working with a certain group of people and the rhythm of that particular group. But then it changes and so does the dynamic. Every senior leader knows this will happen yet it still is unsettling. We prepare for the shift, but we still feel unprepared.
What else happens is that we get distracted by an activity and it keeps us from seeing what is really bothering us. It’s not the strategic planning session. It’s not knowing what will happen and how to deal with it that is the real question.
It’s difficult to know what to do when we don’t know what will happen; sometimes we can’t even anticipate outcomes. We have new experiences, form new groups, learn new things and these all have one thread in common: we don’t know what will happen when we do these things.
When we are considering a new situation, it’s easy to overlook what is really bothering us. It could be the activity itself, like a strategic planning meeting. But it’s likely how we feel about the activity that is getting our attention. The practice of introspection can help us all understand what the real question is by connecting our reaction to the action.
