Get Unstuck: Declare Your Ambiguity

Whether you are starting a new project on your own or working in collaboration with a team, those murky areas where you aren't clear what the facts are, what you want, what's even possible can stop you and the group in your tracks and the whole project can come to a lock-kneed halt. To get unstuck from this, use a tool I borrowed from Mary Beth O'Neill at LIOS (Leadership Institute of Seattle):

Declare Your Ambiguity

There are 5 steps to this process:

1. Declare The Ambiguity. Own up to it. Sometimes everyone is thinking the same thing, but no one wants to say so, wondering silently whether their peers have as many unanswered questions as they do, but not wanting to look incompetent. As long as this murky feeling sits with you and/or the group undeclared, you aren't really dealing with it, but it is still there.
2. State What you Are Clear On. In any given project or scenario, there are pieces you have clarity about, and pieces that are somewhat foggy or less clear, or a total blank. Begin with what you are clear about. Maybe it is the outcome, or the start date, or the timeframe. Whatever you are clear on, state it as a place to begin. This is like putting down the puzzle pieces you definitely recognize and you can build on them.
3. State what is unclear, undefined, or murky. "This is where I feel I'm grasping in the dark," or "Here is where the lines begin to fade for me," are statements describing that feeling of not knowing where you stand. It might be different for you than a colleague, but by stating it you open a dialogue that can be clarifying.
4. State the information that would clarify. "If I knew what the budget was, I'd feel better about providing some solutions," or "Who, exactly, is our perfect customer for this service?" or "How long will we be in this temporary office?"
5. Ask for what you need. Be specific: "Ray, can you let me know by tomorrow when the vendor is available and what he will charge for this part of the project?" 

Once these steps have been taken, more pieces of the puzzle come into focus and you can move forward. When working solo, you may want to have a thought partner to talk through your ambiguity with, such as a coach or friend. If you are one who journals, you might work it out on the page in a mind map format. Repeat as often as required. Keep moving toward the things that light you up.

Join Me in The Fifty Minute Experiment

Enthusiasm for my business is up, ideas are flowing faster than ever and I have so much energy I can hardly sleep at night, all due to an experiment I'm currently running. I hope you will join me for a week at least, then report your findings back to see whether this idea has legs.

Here's the experiment: I've begun arranging my work day around 50-minute hours, rather than 60, so that the last ten minutes of each hour are devoted to getting in more physical activity. I walk every day, three miles first thing in the morning. It feels great, gets my day off to a good start, but that level of activity is not enough to keep the "muffin top" effect away. Plus, I noticed a lethargy creeping in mid afternoon, after two. Since I had a fairly full schedule already, there was motivation to get creative with my time.

I remembered that, early in my coaching practice I shared office space with 19 therapists, and their sessions were fifty minutes, which allowed a bathroom break, refreshments, stretching or notes before the next client session. I've kept that practice with my clients, even though we haven't been in the same building for several years now. However, I don't have client sessions eight hours a day every day, and for the most part was working straight through non-client hours on my computer, as most of us do. As a result, my neck and shoulders were stiff, and my energy was down.

Two weeks ago, I started The Fifty Minute Experiment. Here's how it works for me, and I invite you to tweak it any way you want to: at ten minutes before the top of the hour, I get up and get a half-glass of water, stretch and on alternate days work either my abs or arms. On arm days, I use free weights and do sets of 10 bicep curls, etc. in addition to some stretching. On ab days, I do Pilates or situps or boxing moves to work the oblique muscles. Once 3 sets of those exercises are complete, I might use the next session to take a walk around the pond across the street, which takes nine minutes. If you work at home, you might use that ten minutes to vacuum a room or tidy up in some way that is physical. If you are in an office, you could take a short walk, or find an empty conference room to stretch and/or exercise.

I believe we must become creative in the way we structure our days, time and activity because so much of what we do is now done sitting in front of a computer. We were not designed to sit all day. I have been amazed at how this one small change has energized me and made the working day so much more fun. Not only that, but I have access more often to clearer thinking and fresh ideas, which benefits me and my clients. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.