Half-full or half-empty?

Half-full or half-empty?

We all have an orientation to possibility or necessity.  This can also be referred to as being a glass-half-full or glass half empty person.  What we know is the opposite of our personal orientation can often drive us crazy!

Let’s get some definitions and context before we go on much further.  Having an orientation to possibility often looks like the person who has energy; they are sure there is a way they can achieve something; they are focused on the possibilities within a situation.  People often say they are optimistic.

Having an orientation to necessity is when a person can be more critical about a situation; they are good at noticing what could go wrong; they sort situations and information by difference and what might be at odds with the goal that is trying to be achieved.  Sometimes people can say they are pessimistic.

You can see by these definitions that we are talking about a scale – necessity (pessimism) at one end and possibility (optimism) at the other.  Using this example, people might sit anywhere from 0 – 100% – so there are lots of degrees of variance.

So how does this show up in teams?

I worked with a senior team a little while ago and they were fairly high performing.  They achieved what they set out to do but the issue they were having was around how the team was gelling.  Whilst they enjoyed success, they were talking about how it just felt ‘hard’ sometimes – harder than they thought it should.  I probed a little further and it took a while to get to the issue.  The team was very committed to each other and there was some hesitancy as no-one wanted to look like they were pointing the finger at someone else.

When we got to the bottom of it, there was one team member, let’s call him Sam, who when starting projects; conducting reviews; anything really; Sam constantly saw the things that could go wrong and would highlight the flaws in any idea.  Most of the rest of the team found this to be a source of frustration.  They would have brainstorming sessions and Sam would often say, “well, if you do that, then this will happen and that won’t be acceptable” or “ if we head in that direction we will be exposed and that would be worse so we shouldn’t do that”.

This got so bad for this team that they came up with a workaround.  The workaround was when they were going through the first stages of an idea or brainstorming, they would leave Sam out of the meeting or book the session at a time they knew Sam would not be available.  Sam was known as the person who put a ‘downer’ on the ideas. This was clearly not a great solution for this team.  But how many times do we see teams coming up with workarounds that are creating a false harmony?

We ended out completing some diagnostics around this team’s‘ inner game’.  What we uncovered was that Sam actually bought some real strengths to the team.  He was very pragmatic and process-oriented and once the whole team knew what this meant and how this could be used to their advantage, they started to seek Sam’s opinion on things.  In the past, they viewed Sam’s pessimism (necessity) as a roadblock.  Now, they could see that Sam would uncover ways to think about the new idea or project in ways that the rest of the team wouldn’t.  Sam was actually part of their awesome sauce as a team and contributed hugely to the success they had.

It was Albert Einstein who said, “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them”.  I believe utilising thinking from both a possibility and necessity perspective, will help you get the thorough answer you are looking for.

Questions for you

So, it’s interesting when we talk about possibility and necessity (optimism and pessimism), what can initially seem a bit irritating, can be the thing that really helps us achieve success.  It’s the two sides of the same coin – each brings a slightly different perspective but it makes up the whole picture.

So where do you think you sit on this scale?  Who in your team might be opposite or different to you and how could you utilise their perspective to your advantage?

If you are noticing a team dynamic that you think is hindering your team’s performance, or just preventing you from being a slick as you want to be, we should chat.  Uncovering how your individual team members and then how the collective team is playing their inner game is one of the keys to leaning in and achieving greater success.

Lead with Impact,