"What am I doing wrong?"

This is usually the first thought or question when we keep trying over and over again to solve a problem but cannot gain traction.

• A leadership team I am working with struggles to create a new approach to managing a crisis in their organization. They become stuck and start to blame each other.

• A coaching client who leads an executive team is paralyzed because of a fear of making a mistake.

• I struggle with wanting to bring something new and helpful in my newsletters and break away from the cookie-cutter templates and "proven approaches."

• All are examples of feeling limited or stuck when looking at what we learned, know how to do, or experienced up until now. The call is to pivot away from the tried and true to innovate, to emergence, to a "creative response."

The Creative Response

I want to introduce you to an essential capability as you navigate the New World: The Creative Response - a key move for building resilience, agility, responsiveness, and agency.

The solution is in music.

I was discussing jazz improv with my son, Phil, a musician. We deconstructed what was happening when musicians riff and create something new with each other. I found this a valuable way to work with The Pivot.

Playing jazz with others. 

Here are the key ways of working it:

• Create a mindset or attitude of generosity - What I play is to help others play well. This isn't a solo. 
  

• When initiating something new, start with something very, very small. Think of this as an offering. You offer a string of notes for the other players to receive and build on.
  

• If the small offering is off, they can still accept it and build on it. It's the spirit (intention) of the giving that counts.
  

• You don't sweat the mistakes. Once you are in motion playing with them, you keep going. There is no going back. All is in movement.

Phil added at the end of our discussion: “One of my teachers would often say about wrong notes: The first is a mistake. The second is maybe weird. The third is a new style.”

We watch jazz musicians drop into a flow state when they play like this. Imagine doing life like this.

We covered the moves, but here is a critical piece of preparation. Internally, you need to be squared away to flex and improvise. In martial arts and meditation, this means being grounded and present. I can show you a quick way to shift into being more grounded and present.

You can listen to or download this short, easy audio, which I will guide. Click the tree pictured below.

Here is a one-pager cheat sheet to help.

Action

Practice Centering Presence a couple of times a day, and in less than two weeks, you can access it in real-time in any situation.

Play well. Let me know how it is going.