Mind The Gap | Follow | Good Power
Hello there! Welcome to my weekly LEAPS.
You’re receiving this email because you subscribed to my weekly Wednesday feature or our mailing list. Every Wednesday, I share 5 things using our LEAPS approach:
Learn: something new or an idea
Energy: an energy (good or bad) word and it’s meaning
Action: something to do
Processing: a question to consider
Shout out: something or someone that I want to celebrate or acknowledge
LEARN
Something Worth Sharing
Mind The Gap
As humans, we have an essential need to make sense of information and situations. This is how we learn and develop. It is also how we survive. We may no longer need to out-run big hairy creatures and escape to our caves, but we still have the same inbuilt protocols, just in case!
We are designed to fill in the gaps of missing information so we can make quick decisions and take action. If we sense fear in our group, we immediately respond to it as a possible reason to be afraid ourselves. We guess where information is lacking - in a split second and often, not consciously.
Let me give you another example of how this works; have you ever had a telephone call with a friend or relative that seems unusually dismissive? Once off the call, have you then filled in the gaps of why they were short with you with something like: “why are they upset with me?” or “what did I do wrong?”. It more than likely was more to do with something about their day - but that’s not what we guess.
This is increasingly common with social media, emails and instant messaging - where lots of context and information can be missing, so we end up filling it in wrongly.
When there is a lack of information, we instantly resort to a gap-filling situation - but rarely with positive ‘hearts and flowers’. Remember, it is a survival technique and so it’s a worst-case gap-filling that we jump to. To get past this we need to:
have awareness that we’re filling in a gap with worst-case guesses
pause
remember that most of the time it’s about the other person, not us
ask them for actual information to replace your guessing
remember this is normal so be kind - to yourself and others
Of course knowing this can help us mind the gap, but it can also help us fill in information for others so that they avoid the gap!
ENERGY
An emotion or energy; a stand-out word / s
Follow
When hearing the word ‘followers’, I tend to think of people encouraging more of them on social media. But the book I recently read (see my weekly gift to you) talks about Followship: doing what others suggest rather than leading out front. This is how FOLLOW became my word of the week.
It originates from Middle English FOLWEN meaning "to accompany (especially as a disciple), move in the same direction as; follow after, pursue, move behind in the same direction". Also "obey, conform to, act in accordance with; apply oneself to (a practice, trade, or calling).”
It is thought that the word probably originated from compound, FULL-GAN "serve, go with as an attendant".
ACTION
Something small that you can do that might make a big difference
“Did You Know…?”
This action has two parts. 1) See if you can find some interesting information - a fact of any type. 2) Now share it with someone.
My hope is that you can encourage your friends, colleagues or family to join in - and exchange some facts over coffee or dinner - the most interesting or unusual, the better! Just because!
PROCESSING
A question to think about and consider (you can discuss this with someone or write your thoughts down)
“As a child, what was I taught about being a good person?”
Last week I put forward a question about being successful - and what your early beliefs were about this. This week, I’m asking you to consider what you were taught - directly and through society and experiences - about being a good person.
Do you agree with what you thought back then? How has this changed?
I’d love for you to send me your own stories / thoughts about this. Drop me a line with your answer / thoughts on this question
SHOUT OUT
Who / what I think deserves recognition - my gratitude or to be celebrated.
Stumbling Over Gems
This week, I stumbled over a new non-fiction book by accident. It made me think that stumbling over things can sometimes be joyous - finding hidden treasures or unexpected things. Shout out to stumbling over little gems!
BONUS GIFT FOR YOU
The gift is only available to those that subscribe to the weekly LEAPS email
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If you’d like to discuss having your ideas, business or culture captured visually - you can also let me know via email.
LEAPS is a process used by our team and clients all the time - and even my own family on a daily basis.
I’ll be sharing a set of LEAPS each week with you and encourage you to do your own version:
L: what have you learned?
E: what’s your energy / feeling word
A: what’s one thing you need to do?
P: what are you thinking / processing?
S: who or what can you shout out?
