Take off the blinders!

I have come to admire and appreciate the work of Gary Klein, PhD, who authored the book, Seeing What Others Don’t: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights (2013, Public Affairs, NY). Klein notes that most performance-improvement models involve decreasing errors and uncertainties through standards, controls, documentation, checklists, reviews, rigors, and procedures. Sound familiar?

Insights, on the other hand, come from grappling with curiosity about contradictions, connections, and coincidences. Klein posits that an insight is an unexpected shift to a better story for understanding how things work and can lead to changes in how we understand, act, feel, and desire. Wrestling with contradictions and connections to gain insight is often catalyzed by creative desperation—when the need to reconcile opposite or contrary experiences or understandings results in the creation of something new or innovative that better solves a problem or helps reconcile competing beliefs or frames of reference.

How often do you see things that others don't?

Failure to gain insight is often characterized by lack of experience, a passive stance, concrete reasoning, and adherence to flawed beliefs. Gaining insights requires experience, an active stance, playful reasoning, and a willingness to question long-held assumptions and beliefs.

How often do you see things that others don’t? How often do you try to make sense of contradictions, connections, and competing ideas, of understandings, stances, or frames of reference in your professional practice? To what degree do you apply curiosity and creativity to foster insight development in yourself and others? Do you think cultivation of insight is important to your education, practice, and research leadership skill set? How do you foster insight development with your peers, colleagues or protégés?

As I studied and learned more about Klein’s theory and ideas about insight formation, I connected his work and ideas with those of Barry Johnson, PhD, father of polarity management. I realized polarity management is a key leadership skill set that assists individuals, groups, teams, and organizations in defining and working through contradictions, connections, and polarities. Unpacking and working through polarities oftentimes leads to development of insight.

Bonnie Wesorick, recipient of the 2011 Edith Moore Copeland Award for Excellence in Creativity—a Founders Award presented by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International—provides an excellent overview of polarity management, as well as principles and leadership practices needed in today’s health care environments. Consider identifying polarities in your work context, and then experiment with managing those polarities, based on the strategies and techniques she describes. [Learn more: “Bonnie Wesorick: Nurse on a mission,” and “Bonnie Wesorick: Putting the care back in health care.”]

Improving performance, decreasing errors, and establishing standards and controls are necessary in health care today. However, each of us should be curious about and sensitive to contradictions, connections, and coincidences we experience. Subjecting those experiences to playful reasoning and polarity management can lead to wisdom insights and a better story for understanding how things work. Decide now to learn more about polarity management. Maybe you will begin gaining some wisdom insights and see what others don’t.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

Self as coach: Professional renewal through strength and character

One of the most significant challenges leaders face is how best to maintain optimism, hope and a sense of renewal when confronted with competing commitments, conflicts and struggles that are a part of leadership responsibilities. Nurse leaders need to engage inner work in order to more effectively provide outer service (Pesut, 2001). Renewal is accomplished by clarifying one’s strengths, values, gifts and talents—and using them with intention. A strengths and character-based approach to personal and professional renewal helps people appreciate and value their signature themes and natural talents. Knowing what one’s signature strengths and values are promotes personal mastery and self-management in the creation of a purpose-driven life.

Some leaders choose to work with professional coaches to discern their strengths and learning edges. Others believe there is value in developing self as coach, through deliberate inquiry and practices connected to personal and professional renewal efforts. I encourage leaders I know to use two assessments to obtain information about signature and character strengths. The first is the VIA Survey from the VIA Institute on Character. This instrument assesses strength in character. Based on responses to a series of questions, the instrument rank orders 24 character strengths and then groups them by the virtue categories of wisdom, courage, humility, justice, temperance or transcendence. Knowledge of character strengths and learning edges promotes insight, action and development.

Another resource I think is most valuable for nursing leaders is the book, Strengths Based Leadership, by Tom Rath and Barrie Conchie (Rath & Conchie, 2009). This book provides access to the Gallup Corporation StrengthsFinder assessment tool. Knowing what your top five signature strengths are gives voice to your talents and skill mix. Even more valuable, this reference and resource provides specific strength by strength-based strategies to help a leader master most of the characteristics that followers want in leaders: trust, compassion, stability and hope. The best thing nursing leaders can do to strengthen the profession is to know what values support and sustain individual character and how to support followers through intentional activation of personal strengths and virtues.


References and Resources:

Pesut, D.J. (2001). Healing into the future: Recreating the profession of nursing through inner work. In N. Chaska (Ed.), The nursing profession: Tomorrow and beyond (pp. 853-867). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Rath, T., & Conchie, B. (2009). Strengths based leadership. New York, NY: Gallup Press.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.

Gremlins and grace: Challenges for a new year

As the holiday season and another year came to a close, I reflected how, in the recent past, my gremlin kept surfacing to influence, hamper and interfere with my thinking, doing and relating. One of my colleagues suggested I read Rick Carson’s book, Taming Your Gremlin. I did, and it has given me new ways to monitor, notice and respond to my personal gremlins.

As we begin a new year, I think it is a good time to take stock, reflect and consider how best to tame one’s gremlins. According to Carson, taming one’s gremlin involves the process of noticing and choosing—
moment-to-moment—light over darkness, good over evil and the love that sustains over the fear likely to destroy. If you have one or more gremlins that need taming, explore Rick Carson’s website and learn more about gremlin taming.

Of special note are his tips for taming gremlins. Pictures people have created that visually represent personal gremlins of many types and varieties is available in his Gallery of Gremlins. Feeling creative about describing your personal gremlin? Perhaps you will want to respond to Carson’s invitation to draw and submit a picture of your own gremlin to his Gremlin gallery?

Gremlins often take charge of the chatterbox inside our heads. Gremlin taming is one way to manage the chatterbox. Another way is to create a state-of-grace document for yourself and with others.

The five components of a state-of-grace document are: 1) the story of me/us, 2) interaction styles and warning signs, 3) expectations and core values, 4) questions to return to peace, and 5) short- and long-term agreements. A state-of-grace document can become a blueprint for positive healthy relating. Creating a state-of-grace document for yourself and with those you care about provides a stimulus for conversation, dialogue and understanding.

Learn more about these documents and consider how gremlin taming and grace can be incorporated into your personal and professional development plans for the new year, 2011.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.