Daily Dose of Inspiration – Stepping Into Experiments & Finding Opportunity in Crisis

I recently had a Zoom call with a client team. It was an experiment to see how we could shift ourselves from doing business continuity triage to actually discovering the opportunities in the midst of the crisis. The complex situation we are in is a great time for doing experiments because there are very few blueprints about this specific situation we’re in. We get to create the path as we go.

Here is the list of what we wanted to learn from the experiment:

1. Could we be effective in coaching the client team virtually? Our previous engagements were in person.
2. Would people be able to shift their mindset from triage exhaustion to experimentation in just a one hour call?
3. Would we be able to actually come up with specific ideas about what experiments could be created to serve their clients and improve their business revenues?

We learned the answers to these questions on the call. And we learned so much more. This is because we were in a learning mindset rather than a success or failure mindset.

Here is the structure of the call we did:

1. The leader of the team started by sharing their appreciation for the team’s hard work and how they are pivoting.
2. We checked in with everyone to understand their “current reality.” As members shared more vulnerably, it created a stronger team bond and empathy. This is an important mindset shift.
3. I asked each team member to share what contribution inspires them. How did they want to contribute to the stakeholders that matter to them? This got the creative juices flowing.
4. The team brainstormed ideas, and we came out with three experiments the team would try that week to build revenue and take care of employees.

Here’s the happy team.

Feel free to try this experiment for yourself, or if you’d like my help, please reach out to me. What are the experiments you’re doing in this time?

Grateful we’re in this together!

P.S. Please share these blog series with others on your teams so together we can grow new capacities to thrive in disruption. You can sign up for the series here. And don’t forget to comment below with your questions and challenges so we can co-create for our community.

This article was written by Henna Inam, C-level executive coach, global speaker, and author of the book Wired for Disruption. She helps leaders grow their agility to be a force for good and thrive in times of change. They create organizations that drive breakthroughs in innovation, growth, and engagement. In roles including Head E-Innovation and Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer, Henna drove transformation throughout her 20-year corporate career as an executive with Fortune 500 companies. Join the thousands who follow her blog here. Connect on Linkedin.