 In
Reflection – Seeing Beyond Barriers to Possibility
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Typically I use
every other month to reflect on the key article written
the month prior, responding to questions and comments
from readers on the previous issue. I recently strayed
from my normal format by writing back to back articles
on “Seeing Beyond Barriers to a Person’s Possibility”,
and hence, have received some great questions and
comments from both articles. In the spirit of keeping
this issue to a reasonable length, I am going to use
both this month and next month as follow-up issues in
order to field as many of the questions as I can. Let
me start by responding to four questions below that I
think will be of interest to a wide variety of readers.
For those who haven’t read them, you might want to go
back and read the archived issues from April and June
which prompted these queries.
Developing the
Habit of “Possibility Thinking”.
Denise, thank you so much
for feeding the fires of our desire to truly serve
people in a genuine and authentic way. It is obvious
that a lot of what you write about and teaching is the
result of provocative, creative thinking which seems to
come natural to you. What do you suggest to people like
myself who don’t naturally and readily think in an
out-of-the-box manner?
- Career Counselor, Santa
Fe, New Mexico
I appreciate the
question because it is reflective of the one of the
greatest myths about creativity that keeps us from
wading in its waters – the idea that we have to be one
of those artsy, imaginative, inspired, original
thinker-types in order to take a creative approach to
life and work. Thank God that’s not true, since few
people in the world would self-identify as naturally
creative types! I don’t even know the extent to which I
would claim creative tendencies myself, but I can attest
to the fact that I have disciplined myself to apply
creative principles which help to posture my thinking
more towards what is possible than what is predictable.
With conscious and deliberate attention, I think we can
develop habits that help us see and perceive the
potential in a situation and not settle on what appears
as mere probability. I believe that these are habits
that can be applied by anyone, in any kind of work,
regardless of personality type. Among those habits
leading to what I will refer to as “possibility
thinking”, I would include:
-
Steering
clear of assumptions, conclusions and definitions
that hinder, thwart, or prevent us from seeing
possibilities in a situation;
-
Maintaining a
willingness to probe beyond the ordinary and the
commonplace,
-
Developing an
appetite for what is hidden and unknown without
clinging to what is readily observable and obvious;
-
Staying open
to many options before narrowing our search for the
one right answer; and,
-
Being careful
to ask questions that lead us in the direction of
creative inquiry rather than down the well-worn
paths of what we already know to be true. (See
the June 2008 issue - Creative Prompts to See
Beyond Barriers)
Again, these are
general principles that can be applied to any role,
within any field of endeavor. Indeed, while at first
blush they may appear simple and straight-forward,
putting them into practice is not so easy, especially
for those who wade waist high in the daily stream of
time pressures, budget restraints, and program
restrictions and/or having to work one’s way through the
thick tangle of bureaucratic rules and regulations.
Still, we are, at heart, a creative species given the
gift of a mind that is free to wander beyond those
places that are fenced off and domesticated. With
vigilant intentionality we need to develop the habit of
“possibility thinking” on behalf of those whose lives
would be enhanced and enlarged by leaving the marked
paths of conformity and convention. With the spirit of
visionaries and the hearts of pilgrims, we need to
venture into lesser known territories where opportunity
may lie in wait.
Are we
“playing with fire” or “working with fire”?
Dear Denise, While I respect your ingenuity and
creativity for uncovering a person’s gifts, dreams,
purposes, etc., aren’t you playing with fire since we
need to get people on board with what is open and
available in the job market? Thanks for your input.
-
Job Developer, Jacksonville, Florida
While I
appreciate the question, I beg to differ with the
premise that our job is to get people “on board” a ship
that might not be headed in the direction in which they
intend to travel! To begin with, how can we assume that
we can even begin to know all that is “available” in
terms of a person’s opportunities? The truth is that
what we have exposure to and knowledge of may be an
infinitesimal amount of what actually exists in the
world in terms of a person’s possibilities. More
importantly, focusing on what is “available”
automatically limits our thinking to what is obvious
and/or easily accessible rather than expanding our ideas
to might be possible!
By focusing
solely on available openings we may miss out on all of
the potential opportunities that could be created within
a business by looking at innovative new ways of using a
person’s abilities to bring profit, save money, or solve
a problem for the employer by proposing a “new
position”.
Furthermore, what
happened to the person’s freedom to negotiate an
existing position in such a way that fits with their
needs and interests and still meets the needs of the
business? We need not necessarily limit a person’s
opportunities to what is immediately available, but stay
open and attentive to additional possibilities. With a
little initiative and imagination we can propose and
create new opportunities that suit the needs and
interests of both the potential employee and the
employer. I think that what could be perceived as
“playing with fire” from one perspective could be seen
as “lighting a fire” from another – namely, the kind of
fire that can help illuminate a path worth working hard
to find and follow with heart!
Questions
worth asking of “the system”!
Dear Denise, I like your ideas about helping people
pursue their dreams in a variety of creative ways, but I
work in a system that has certain goals and objectives
which only allow us to provide certain services within
specific guidelines. Unfortunately, in order for us to
be successful in the world in which we operate, we can’t
be terribly supportive of those outside of it. Any
suggestions?
-
Case Manager, Department of Social Services, Sacramento,
California
Forgive me, dear
reader, for responding to this query in a way that you
will probably find less than satisfying, but I can
really only respond to this question with an onslaught
of other questions. If you sense some frustration in
the tenor of my response, please know that it is a
direct result of having been on both the giving and
receiving end of “services” that in the end, failed to
serve anyone but those who were part and parcel of the
respective “beloved system”. With that being said,
here are some questions we might ask:
-
Does the
world really begin and end at our door? Are we
really only free to expose, educate and inform
people and their families of the services available
to them within the confines of the system of which
we are a part?
-
When did it
become tolerable for us to shape and limit a
person’s choices so that they fit within the neat
little checklist of a bureaucracy?
-
Do we have
room for the possibility that we aren’t the missing
piece in a person’s puzzle? And if that is true,
would we really withhold possible solutions that
could work outside the borders of our little world?
-
When did
human services adopt the “dog eat dog” mentality
that presumes that, by default, we function in a
zero sum paradigm in which in order for one to win,
another must lose? Perhaps there is a rightful
place for a survival of the fittest mindset, but
does it really belong in human services in which the
only thing we are attempting to “win” is the rights
and opportunity for individuals to participate fully
in their communities and to share their gifts with
the world?
-
If we are
able to develop an opportunity for someone and “not
get credit for it”, does that necessarily work
against our purposes or hinder our greater
progress? When did helping a person succeed outside
or in spite of the system cease to be anything but a
triumph?
-
With the
commitment to finding creative solutions, are we not
willing to look beyond the confines of the smaller
world within which we work, in order to seek
possibilities in the larger world in which we live?
In summary, I
guess the real question is this: Are we working with
systems put in place to serve people, or are people
there to serve the purposes of the system? With the
people-first approach, we would not hesitate to support
and affirm services that work for them, whether or not
they “counted” by the standards of the system’s. This
is really a question of the underlying values and
purposes of the programs in which we operate. While we
may not be able to affect immediate change to the
overriding paradigm with the earnestness of our intent,
holding to a people-first approach in our day to day
encounters will affect the experience of those with whom
we meet. That’s worth a lot in my book!
Idealists
Unite - Keeping the “near look” and the “far vision”.
Dear Denise, I appreciate
and would concur with your assertion that we have to
take a creative approach in seeing beyond barriers in
order to view new possibility for ourselves, for our
clientele and for our programs. I get discouraged,
however, because I feel surrounded by people with little
or no vision at all. My question is what to do when
you’re the only one who is willing to look beyond the
obvious and you are labeled by everyone else as being
“the dreamer” or “the idealist”? Thanks for your
newsletters!
- Rehabilitation Counselor,
Medicine Hat, Alberta
I know that many
of us really relate to this reader’s question! First of
all, I don’t think anyone is without vision, because we
are always seeing something with the mind’s eye. I do
believe, however, that there are numerous ways of
seeing, and each of us has a way that is most
comfortable or natural to us. In any workplace you are
likely to find among them:
-
Dogmatic thinkers
who feel they already know everything there is to
know about the subject, and there is nothing else to
be learned or discovered. These are the people I see
in my trainings who say “Been there, done that,
didn’t work” before I’ve even had a chance to finish
a sentence.
-
Conformists who
refuse to embrace a vision until the majority has.
These are the people who go along to get along,
content with the status quo and the relatively
smooth ride – problem is, they might be lulled to
sleep!
-
Devil’s advocates
who have a gift for automatically taking the
opposite viewpoint of what is being presented. They
remind me of the mother who sends her son two ties
for Christmas, a blue one and a red one. When he
shows up wearing the blue one, she complains, “What,
you don’t like the red one!?
-
Traditional thinkers
who do it the way it has always been done because,
well, it is the way it has always been done! They
are like the lady who always cut the front and back
off the ham before putting it in the oven because
that’s the way her mother and her grandmother before
her did it, oblivious of the fact that her
grandmother’s oven was half the size of an oven
today and she had to cut the ends off to make the
darn thing fit!
-
Concrete thinkers
who feel it is their job to “call like it is”,
otherwise known as realists. They are like Lucy
when Charlie Brown holds up his hands before her and
says, “These are hands which may someday accomplish
great things and do marvelous works! These are
hands which may build might bridges, or heal the
sick, or hit home runs, or write soul-stirring
novels! These are hands which may someday change
the course of human destiny! Lucy, who prides
herself on seeing how things are, replies, “Really,
‘cuz all I see are some grubby mitts with jelly all
over them!”
-
Problem seekers
who see a new problem in every solution and are
often more comfortable with old problems than living
with new solutions, otherwise known as pessimists,
nay-sayers and cynics. They are like the guy who
witnessed the launching of the first steamship on
the Hudson River who kept saying, “They’ll never get
her going, they’ll never get her going!” But they
did. And when that steamship belched and moved out
fast, the man immediately changed his tune, to
“They’ll never get her stopped! They’ll never get
her stopped!”
-
Possibility thinkers
who refuse to settle for “what is probable”
until what is possible has been thoroughly explored;
otherwise known as idealists, dreamers, and
optimists. They are in sync with the likes of
George Bernard Shaw who said “Some men see things as
they are and say, “Why?” I dream of things that
never were and say, “Why not?” They are also the
ones who when life hands them a lemon, say, “Hey,
let’s pretend they’re limes and make margaritas!”
Notice that these
various viewpoints all steer one’s vision in a
particular direction, serving like a lens on the camera
of the mind. I think it’s probably a good thing that we
all bring a different lens to the situation, as each way
of seeing has its merits. But viewing a situation
solely through one of these lenses certainly limits the
scope of one’s perspective on any given situation. I am
not so sure that any of these perspectives are
particularly helpful when used in isolation from the
others. I’d like to think that we can look at “what is
real” (apply concrete thinking), consider both the
potential pro’s and con’s of any given option (taking
the view of optimist and pessimist), play devil’s
advocate, and still look at additional possibilities.
Still, we must
remember what business we are in – we are engaged in the
enterprise of creating opportunity. We are merchants of
hope, even if we have to smuggle in it under our coats!
As such, clearly among the viewpoints to be considered
with regard to a person’s future, we wouldn’t want to
exclude possibility thinking! People need direction, a
place to begin, and a pathway to follow. I am reminded
of the traveler while trekking through a rugged country
asking his Indian guide, “How are you able to pick your
way through these jagged peaks, by treacherous trails,
without ever losing your direction?” The guide
answered, “I have the near look and the far vision.
With the one, I see what is directly ahead of me, with
the other I guide my course by the stars!”
Not everyone has
the gift of being able to have the “near look” and the
“far vision”, but I think it is possible for us to
consciously cultivate both. To those who would call us
“dreamers” or “idealists”, I would remind them
cheerfully, as John Lennon does says in his song
Imagine, “…but I’m not the only one!”
Happy Summer!
~ Denise
© Denise Bissonnette, July 2008
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Read Denise's
previous (June 2008) newsletter...
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