A Coaching Power Tool By Marijn Sissingh, Life Coach, Non-profit Leadership Coach, NETHERLANDS
How Does Existing vs. Creation Impact Our Communities?
The city of Tampa in Florida has many homeless people who experience difficulties finding jobs, partly due to the lack of transport required to arrive at the part-time or temporary jobs available. The city also has many dysfunctional bikes scattered all over the place with nobody feeling any responsibility for them. These realities were noticed by Dengler, a social entrepreneur from Tampa. He connected both and developed a project where homeless individuals could earn their own bikes by spending ten hours repairing bikes. This idea was not the result of a deep analysis of the situation. Instead, the idea came to Dengler after his brain spontaneously connected the pieces of information. This is what we call an ‘aha` moment: a relevant idea popping up, seemingly out of nothing.
Social entrepreneurs, like Denger, want to create a world that is more equal, just, and peaceful. They want to create systems that work better than those that exist. As the example of Denger shows, this does not necessarily involve the creation of completely new worlds where everything is different from before. More effective is to recreate new links between components of the current system in a way that leads to a different outcome. This is what Denger did when he connected two very separate components of the system, homelessness, and bike waste, in a way that reduced both the number of homeless people and unused bikes scattered around, which ultimately resulted in better living conditions for many in the community.
Connecting two totally different components of society, as Denger did, is an unusual way of finding solutions. If confronted with a challenge, people more often follow what they know, relying on old or even habitual ways of thinking. We do not take the time or are not able to enter an innovative mind space with the consequence that shortcuts in our brain, mostly habitual, are at the root of our solutions. Not surprisingly, these solutions do not catch attention for their level of innovation and hardly transform a situation in a sustainable way. In Tampa, such conventional solutions would have been the city removing bicycles from the street and the police giving fines to homeless people.
If we want to come up with solutions that are more effective, we need to allow ourselves to slow down, increase our focus, look at what comes up spontaneously, decide what we want to do with this, and let our minds wander around these elements in order to see what else comes up, until we experience an aha moment. In this way, we create the space to come up with truly innovative solutions that can sustainably impact our communities.
What Is the Difference Between Existing vs. Creation?
This approach to innovation is integral to the power tool Existing vs. Creation. Existing is about developing solutions that follow logical or habitual ways of thinking. Existing is about a way of thinking that leads to solutions that exist already or involve small adaptations to these solutions. Creation implies that we take the time to slow down and create the space for new solutions with components of our current reality connected in innovative ways. A coach can support the client to move from an existing mindset towards a space where innovative creation is possible.
In this paper, we will explore what existing exactly means before we present an approach that involves creation. The latter approach consists of three phases: focused attention, open monitoring, and mind-wandering. We will explain how a coach can facilitate each of these three phases by bringing the client into the right mind space and asking the right questions.
What Exists Is What Is There Already
What prevents us from coming up with innovative solutions is the way how we often process information and experiences in relation to a challenge. By jumping quickly to solutions without taking time to slow down and reflect, we allow old ways of thinking or even habitual thinking patterns to shape the solution. External events or thoughts trigger old ways of thinking and automatic reactions with the result that we come up with conventional ideas without anything fundamentally changing.
Of course, our habitual thinking and automatic behavior also have many advantages. In many cases, they make life easier and allow us to move fast and efficiently without much cognitive effort. After a bit of practice, driving a car has become largely habitual and we neither need to think much when we prepare our favorite dish or brush our teeth. In relation to the example above, why not just pick up the bicycles and use the materials for different purposes?
However, by being hijacked by old ways of thinking, we risk not being able to create a world that offers higher life satisfaction for everyone. In fact, thinking, in the same way, may deepen the neural pathways in our brain, which means that the habitual way of thinking becomes more easily triggered, stronger, and increasingly difficult to escape. We stay where we are, see things how we already did, and reproduce what is already there. The more we get attached to the idea to recycle bicycles, the less we see other solutions, especially if we already have made the first steps toward the implementation of this solution.
If we want to create something that is different, like Denger did, we need to find the time and space to do so, take distance from our first ideas, become aware of what else comes up, and consciously decide what to do with these feelings and thoughts, allow for new ways of thinking and creative connections, have the courage to share and test our unconventional ideas with others and develop them further. This requires a mindset that individuals may not automatically have, especially if they are operating in conventional environments. Here a coach can come in and support their clients to slow down, let go of existing ideas, increase awareness, and become truly creative.
Creating What Does Not Exist Yet
Creating solutions that do not exist yet does not mean that we ignore or forget what we know. On the contrary, innovators build on all their knowledge and experiences to inform innovative solutions. The difference with producing what already exists is that they create the space where these experiences can come to the surface without any attachment or judgment. Clients become aware of what comes up, choose what to do with that, and ultimately reconnect the pieces in creative ways. A coach can support an innovator in moving through this process.
This creative process of an innovator can be broken down into three stages with the coach supporting the client differently in each stage: focused attention, open monitoring, and mind-wandering.
Phase 1: Focused Attention
In the first phase, with focused attention, the client focuses on a particular element, for example, their breath, body parts, objects, or space. They focus on the shapes, colors, movements, or any other aspect of the element without paying attention to anything else that comes to their mind. If they notice that their attention is going elsewhere, they let go of these other elements and focus again on the element of their choice.
A coach can bring the client into a more focused and analytical space with a Focused Attention Meditation. The coach invites the client to choose an element to focus on and asks questions the client about the factual characteristics of this element, such as the breath or an object. This technique is especially helpful when the client feels overwhelmed, remains attached to certain elements of their story during the coaching, or is more analyzing than reflecting on a situation. With meditation, they can open their mind by letting go of distracting feelings and thoughts
Phase II: Observed Monitoring
In the next phase, with observed monitoring, the client focuses on a situation or idea and consciously becomes aware of any thoughts and feelings that come up and labels these thoughts and feelings. The client does not evaluate or judge what comes up or try to change it. Instead, every thought or feeling is welcomed as it is and only receives curiosity. In this way, the client becomes aware of any thoughts, feelings, thinking patterns, triggers, and reactions in relation to a situation or idea. They could write these down and continue reflecting on them during the next stage of the innovative process.
With an Observed Monitoring Meditation, the coach invites the client to choose a challenge or idea and describe this in vivid detail or the coach can describe it based on what the client has shared before. Once there has been a lively description, the coach invites the client to identify any thoughts and feelings that come up in relation to this challenge or idea without attachment, evaluation, or judgment.
After the mediation, the coach invites the client to share and reflect on what came up and how this relates to the challenge they are facing, what they learned, and what they want to do with their new insights. If the thoughts and emotions are relevant, they can inform the solution to the challenge the client is facing. If not, the client can choose to let it go without giving it further attention.
Alternatively, without going into mediation, the coach can invite the client to become aware of any thoughts and feelings around a particular challenge by asking questions about them. As the coach wants to client to identify whatever is there without narrowing the options down, the question must be broad, such as “What is going on for you now?”, “If you consider this idea, what comes up for you?” or “If these two worlds come together, what will happen?”. After each question, the coach provides the client with sufficient time and space to identify what comes up.
Phase III: Mind-Wandering
The last phase is the phase of mind wandering where the client is in a relaxed and playful mind space and allows their thoughts to flow around without any cognitive efforts. During this state of mind-wandering, various unrelated memories come up, one after the other, in a way that is not related to actual events and without the client trying to influence or evaluate this flow of thoughts. The client can connect these unrelated pieces of information in a way that they become relevant for their challenge until they experience an ‘aha’ moment. Suddenly the client has created an innovative idea that is relevant to their context. This happened with Denger when he connected the homeless people with bicycles.
During this state of mind-wandering, the creation of innovative ideas is not guaranteed. Memories may still come up in a habitual way and the client can connect pieces of information in conventional ways. As the flow of thoughts happens in an uncontrolled and unexpected way, a coach cannot directly influence this. However, the coach can invite the client to a creative environment that stimulates mind-wandering and where unrelated pieces come up. This environment should ideally be new to the client, stimulate various memories, be attractive, and offer some level of comfort and relaxation. The precise environment depends on the client, their way of life, their situation, their personality and learning styles, and their purpose with the coaching. Some clients may open up in nature while others would benefit from an artistic place in town. Clients may want to be alone or prefer a public space with many other people. Clients may want to visit a certain neighborhood, building, organization, or museum. They may want to change work environments, hang out with certain people, engage in an adventurous activity, or do volunteer work. Important is the coach involves the client in the creation of these mind-wandering spaces where innovative ideas could emerge.
The coach can invite the client to immerse themselves in this new environment without any task at hand beyond simply being there and accepting everything that comes up. A coach may accompany the client or let the client go through this experience by themselves before they meet and share about the experience. The coach can move a step further and stimulate the reflection of the client by asking open questions that give the client enough space to broadly reflect, for example, “What is happening now?”, “What comes up right now?” and “If everything is possible, what would happen?”. Creating lots of space with long silences is important for new insights to emerge.
If the coaching is online, there are other ways to stimulate mind-wandering. The most obvious is that the client immerses themselves in an inspirational environment without the coach accompanying them. Alternatives are that the coach proposes the client to watch a movie with or without the presence of the coach, or that the coach shares photos with the client. Even some well-chosen Zoom background may already move the client away from habitual thinking patterns and stimulate more innovative ideas.
Creating a Creative Space
The three stages of the innovative process follow each other naturally with the client strengthening their focus in the focused attention phase, becoming aware of any emotions and thoughts around a challenge during the observed monitoring phase, and making creative connections during the mind-wandering phase.
The client may not want to follow these three phases, prefers another order, or is not open to a meditation approach. If this is the case, the coach must remain flexible and be ready to adapt the coaching process to the needs of the client at any moment.