The Glaringly Obvious | Sympathy | Thinking Round
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
The Glaringly Obvious
One of my favourite thought leaders is Peter Senge, who once said:
“Business and human endeavours are systems…we tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system. And wonder why our deepest problems never get solved.”
I was reminded of these wise words last week while doing a jigsaw puzzle. As any good engineer tends to, I have a system. I begin with finding all the straight edges, select the four corners and build the ‘frame’. Then - and only then - I progress to building the picture within it. However, this particular jigsaw wasn’t brand new and while creating the outer ‘frame’ found that two pieces seemed to be missing, resulting in a broken frame. I kept sorting through the various pieces keenly hunting for the magical pieces that would finally connect the frame and allow me to progress. Over the next couple of days I couldn’t find the missing pieces while simultaneously growing in frustration.
I was stuck in my thinking about the missing pieces and hunting in a box of assorted puzzle pieces - determined to find them. My ‘system’ was broken just as the outer frame of the puzzle was. I walked away from the puzzle and weighed up my options. I could a) just continue anyway and enjoy the jigsaw for what it was, b) bin it, or c) get more frustrated trying to find the possibly lost pieces.
Just as I decided to opt for (a) and decided to change my perspective, I spotted something…I looked closer at what I had put together and saw that two pieces didn’t quite fit right. I swapped them round and ‘bingo!’, the frame was complete. I wasn’t missing anything at all, just the ability to look and think differently at what was in front of me.
The ability to step back and see all possibilities, all pieces and how everything needs to work together is a skill we can all too easily neglect. When we take the ‘quick fix’ option and try and solve a problem by overly focusing on an isolated issue, we miss the ‘often glaringly’ obvious answer. If you want to resolve something in a meaningful and sustainable way, pause and consider the whole system before jumping to a short-term solution.
ENERGY
An emotion or energy; a stand-out word / s
Sympathy
This week, the word I’ve chosen is one that was inspired by the loss of several high profile people in the UK. We tragically lost rugby league player Rob Burrow CBE on 2 June 2024, four and a half years after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) - for which he campaigned and won a £50million Government investment to target MND research. The other loss was of TV presenter, Dr Michael Mosley, who died while hiking on holiday on a Greek island.
The word is ‘sympathy’ - something I feel for their families and friends. It is from Greek SYMPATHEIA meaning "fellow-feeling, community of feeling". Formed from the two words: SYN "together" + PATHOS "feeling". I thought the original meaning was beautiful - a ‘fellow-feeling’.
ACTION
Something small that you can do that might make a big difference
A Message of Care
This week I want to encourage you to send a message to someone important to you - personally or work-wise. The message can be via Whatsapp, Slack, email or a real-life card and it can be anything that demonstrates ‘care’. You might check-in with someone, ask how they’re doing or thank them for something. It’s up to you…who, how and what!
PROCESSING
A question to think about and consider (you can discuss this with someone or write your thoughts down)
“How well am I caring about myself?”
I actually think this is a very big question. How well are you caring for yourself? I encourage you to consider physical needs, emotional needs, relational needs, your sense of purpose, your identity, what impacts you, your diet and health, learning, behaviours, self-talk…I could go on.
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.
Looking Beyond The Surface
As I was thinking about what I think is valuable and deserves recognition this week, I was struck by the importance of looking beyond the surface - of anything really. Understanding someone’s story and journey is so helpful when looking at how they behave. Looking under the hood of a car will help you discover why it’s broken down. Looking at - and paying attention to - your own instincts will give you a guide. Shout out the time, patience and willingness to look beyond the surface!
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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?
