Change 4: Adaptability and Improvisation Mindset

What if the secret to thriving through change wasn't about having all the answers, but knowing how to move without them?

In this episode of the 4D Human Being podcast, Phil and Pen bring us the final instalment of their Leading Through Change series, recorded on the beautiful Isle of Arran, exploring the one mindset that changes everything — adaptability.

Drawing on Phil's background in professional improvisation, this episode is packed with practical, tangible tools you can bring into your meetings, your leadership and your everyday life starting today.

Phil and Pen walk you through how to:

• Adopt the Yes And mindset: swap instinctive blocking for curiosity and open up possibility
• Reframe failure as feedback: build the muscle that turns setbacks into learning
• Let go of the original plan: hold your destination lightly and trust the route will find itself
• Normalise "I don't know yet": because honesty in change is a strength, not a weakness
• Narrate your adaptations: a powerful tool borrowed from the military to keep you grounded and in control

Change isn't slowing down. The leaders and teams who thrive won't be the ones with the tightest plan. They'll be the ones who've trained themselves to stay present, stay curious and keep moving.

Transcript

Scotland Banter And Weather Adaptability

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hello, my name's Philip Walla. My name is Penelope Waller, and we are two of the directors at 4D Human Being. And welcome to the 4D Human Being podcast. What's it all about, Pen? It's all about your personal and professional relationships, it's about your communication skills, how you lead, how you work and build teams, how you are looking after yourself and your well-being, and how you are much more at choice. What do we mean by that? Well, sometimes we can get a little caught in patents in life, and we can all be a little bit on our automatic pilot. So 40 human being is all about helping us get back to choice and being a four-dimensional human being, and your fourth dimension, of course, is intention. So whether it's about your impact, your leadership style, your team dynamics, whether it's about your well-being, whether it's about your communication or your presentation skills, anything that involves human beings interacting with other human beings, 4D Human Being are here to help. We're gonna take a deep dive and look at some tools, insights, theories that are gonna help you go from a 3D human doing to a 4D human being so that you can happen to the world rather than the world simply happening to you. Hello and welcome. We're in Scotland! We're on the Isle of Adam. We'll be mainly doing Scottish accents throughout.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

You've been doing a lot of Scottish accents. Something to look forward to. Well. It's very good though, Phil. I mean, I do think, although we have identical DNA, I think you might have Scottish herit heritage. Heritry? Hereditary. What's the word? Heritage? Easy for you to say. Not. My accent, my Scottish accent suggests that I haven't.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

It's difficult to say the word burn. A fell adele. A glen. Glen. Glen. Stra. A stra. Yes, we've got a whole new Scottish geography vocabulary. Exactly. It's been important as we're shimming down a fennel. So there'll be a quiz at the end. There'll be a quiz at the end. Exactly. Exactly. I'm not sure I've got a super segue there. I suppose adaptability to the weather.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

We've certainly had to adapt to the weather. It's been changeable for it.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

So changeable. It's madness. It reminds me of being in Auckland, strangely. Ah, four seasons in one day. As the song goes, Crowded House, ten points. I mean, we like talking about four seasons in one day.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

We like talking about the weather in Surrey. And we think the weather is changeable. But this is a whole other level. This is bright blue skies to cutting horizontal in 10 minutes. Rain to hail. I love it. In fact, we did say never a dull moment. I did say, didn't I? On one of the hillocks. Who needs Netflix? Who got the main? I did say on one of the hillocks we climbed across the topics. I did say as the sun was shining.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

We are here with the dog. Hopefully that's not the Loch Ness monster. As we were on a hillock in the sunshine, thinking it was all jolly and dandy, which it was actually. But then I said to you, of course the weather could turn at any minute, and we could be two twins found days later stranded in the house.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Yes.

Leading Through Change Part Four

SPEAKER_01 3:25

On a hill. You just don't know. Yes. What were they thinking? Yeah, but we got lucky. Fell on a fell. We may Yeah. Is the headline. Right. And other headlines we never want to see. Oh, we love Scotland though. So this is part four of Leading Through Change. Yes. And this is probably the foundational kind of core philosophy. So I can certainly speak for myself for my life. It was probably the part that created the most possibility through change. Yeah. And it's so interesting, isn't it? Because we're talking about the words adaptability and flexibility. And at the same time, they've created more solidity in my life than in the world. It's got a real paradox in it. Yes. And I think that's one of the things we're going to talk to is the difference between rigidity and flexibility through change. That we somehow think it's going to feel better and more control in control. We can lock it down. We can lock it down. And of course, it's so much more insecure because if you think about trying to hold a pot on a boiling lid, the effort required to keep that in place rather than letting the lid off and letting the steam rise. And this I would differentiate this. That's a good idea. Well, you could you could take it off and put it back on again. It's like when you're braking on an icy road. Of course, what you want to do is you want to lock it down as quickly as possible. But of course, you're absolutely told not to do that. It's the most risky thing to do. Yeah, you've got to pump the brake. Um, I guess I would differentiate this episode from the others in as much as we've looked at kind of resilience through change, we've looked at edge behaviours through change, and also the switch model in terms of what really motivates us through change. So we've really looked at what kind of happens to the body, how we can be more resilient. Uh, we've looked at the behaviours that happen through change and also what genuinely motivates us when we're leading ourselves and others through change. This episode is really the practical stuff that you can do day to day to help yourself and others move through change in the most possible and positive way. Yes. And so probably the thing maybe more create, it's the creative part. Yes, it's the creative response. Yeah. And so probably the thing to say right up front is all of what's gone, certainly in episode three around edge, is to really recognise the difference between the right response to change and your rehearsed response to change, your learned response. And so what we're really playing with here are practical ways to shift and be much more uh flexible, much more it always makes me feel like lighter.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Lighter in the face of change.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

I think of a little sort of leprechaun dancing on its turn.

Rigidity Versus Flexibility Under Pressure

Yes And Mindset In Real Life

Improv Story On Accepting Curveballs

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Yeah, like all exactly all what's possible, rather than digging your heels in and getting stuck. So I think let's go through the practical pieces and fairly not quickly, but fairly sort of briefly give the practical application. Yeah. Because we've got a lot. So number one, the yes and mindset. Say no more. So this is, you know, we talk about this a lot. If I think back to, by the way, this is probably one of the podcasts to do a shout out to my TEDx talk because it really is in that. This is all it's all about this, even in the face of really tough stuff. And just before you dive into it, a couple of the sort of contrary and and often less helpful response patterns that we we can see through change is either blocking, yeah, because you don't want the change, so you're going to find all the problems with it, all the reasons why nothing should change. The second response pattern that that we can often see is a controlling response pattern where we have an idea as to what can change, what needs to change, what we want to do, and we've got that kind of fixed in our mind. So those can be, I'm not saying those are always the responses, but we would call those the sort of contrary responses to the to the improviser mindset, the adaptability, the flexibility. And the blocking, I suppose there's a very, very rare exact instances where that might be helpful. I don't I don't know. Possibly risk aversion. Exactly, definitely. If you're um if you're a safety checker on an oil rig and someone goes to you know pick up a loose cable or chain and say let's change the way we do things around. Yeah, you go, let's stop that. So there's definitely there's definitely a place for it. And also the controlling piece. I I guess we would sometimes, although not always, give the example of let's say the military, where one person just has to be in charge, they have to decide what the change, what the initiative's gonna be, and they'll move forward. Although that said, I think there's often adaptability. There's always flexibility within the system, though, a different different sort of um sections of a system. But I would say watch out for those two responses. Sometimes they can be helpful. I I would offer that they can be our default and less helpful. Yeah, and I'm gonna cut we're gonna come to something around the difference between destination and route as well. So the first thing is the yes and mindset. And I think the word mindset is probably the most important thing here, that it's not about just saying yes and it really is the difference between hearing new ideas, hearing you know, change initiatives, or problems coming up in a meeting, or thoughts about how we might do things differently or change processes. And it's the difference between the absolute default mode of why that's not going to work, bearing in mind we've talked about this a lot. You've been highly rewarded at school and through your career for seeing the problem. Yeah. And I've talked to a number of people recently in coaching sessions about notice what happens in the body, notice the impulse to come forward and say, Oh, hold on, but yeah, but and to almost interrupt or to say yes, but and if you can catch it in the body, it's a great place to catch it because if you can sit back, even you know, a centimeter, two centimetres, get back in your chair, breathe, and almost tell yourself, all I'm gonna do is open up some space here. If you can give yourself anything from 30 seconds to 24 hours before you respond, you're probably gonna avoid the full block. Can I ask it's space, yeah? Can I ask you initially when you were doing lots of improvisation on stage, which you did a lot all over the world. There must have been moments where you were on stage and the scene's going really well, and then somebody says something, there must be a moment in your body where you're thinking, no, that was that's published. I've got a really I've got a really good one. It was a new, it was a new improviser. I don't know if she had, I don't think she ended up working with us. And I think she was just in so much, two things were happening. One, she was in panic, and two, what happens with improvisers is when they're early on, when they're training, going to come back to training in a minute because it's a muscle, um, not a gift always, because she was quite new to it. What can happen is you don't trust your obvious, you feel you've got to be super creative, yeah, super clever. Super clever. So what happened was we we there was a whole story and a scene, it was a long format, long form format. So there was a you know, lots of scenes building up to one story, telling one story. And the Was it in front of an audience? Yes, it was in front of an audience. There were some stakes. So high higher stakes, yeah, and there was a family will, and so you know, the stakes were you know, raised and raised and raised. Yeah, I really remember it. I really remember it because I'd set up the moment where I said, Go and look in the drawer. Okay, go and see what you can find. Now, everyone on that stage, I thought, knew that that had to be probably the will, if not a note or a gun or you know, something that was about this story. To crack it open. To crack it open, exactly. Go and look in the I and I might have even said, go and look in the drawer and read what's in there, or something like that. And she went over there and I said, and she held it out and she said, What this? Now that's another that's another classic. They want you to name it. Yes, and I thought it's so clear, isn't it? This is this is my big mistake. And I said, tell me what you're holding in your hand, you know, sort of thing. And she said, It's a pair of nylon stockings, and of course, my body went, What you know, the it it didn't, but I can I can recognise that there must have been a part of me thinking, no, yes, I'm so trained by that point where my mind actually goes is how do I make nylon stockings work?

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Yes.

Training The Nervous System For Change

SPEAKER_01 11:46

But it was a it but it was that moment of wrong, like everything has been has led up here, and everyone else knows. Now we've got to somehow make that work. But but that what did you do out of a can you remember? Oh yes, I made that, you know, I made it about the mother and the nylon stockings, and it was a it was a message, you know. You just have to work very, very hard. But your sub that nanosecond instinct was yeah, you should have yeah. The nanosecond was come on, we all we all knew. Which is where the which is where the autopilot goes. Yes. Now that was an extreme example where that was hard work. Yeah. Where what can what often happens, of course, let's say it was a more experienced improviser, they might have said something like, um, it's a box. Yeah. And we can work with that. It's not quite what I expected, yes, but but we'll have a less extreme version of, yes, and you know what box that is, don't you? And we'll we'll make it work together. Um, but and this is the point about improv, it is not a gift. We trained week on week on week to build the muscle that doesn't say, no, it's not a pair of nylon stockings, it's a will. Yes. We build the muscle to say, okay, how do I make that work? Yeah. You've thrown in a massive change curveball here. Not what I was expecting. So if we if we apply that to a real life situation, the training week on week on week, which you can do at you can do within your team, you can literally do this training, and we're going to give you some tips on that. Means that when you have the meeting that says our revenue is halved, or the agenda suddenly changes. The agenda changes, or the supply chain is cut, you're not stuck in, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that can't happen. That's not in the plan. Yeah, you're you're not even thinking about it. You're complete, your muscle is so trained to write, what are we doing from here? What's going to work from here? How can we make this work? Well, who needs what? What, how do we still, how do we still keep on target to our destination with the fact that the route has just completely changed. Yeah, and I I do wonder if, let's say for example, for example, that the agenda suddenly changes at the beginning of a meeting, not what you're expecting. Yeah, I've got my I've got my 20-minute presentation. Yes. Yes, and I think the brain probably does go to the first one, which is this isn't fair. So if you feel you can, because of the hierarchy or non-hierarchy, if you feel you can say, no, this is not what we agreed, then we've gone into the blocking, not necessarily good or bad, but that's where we've gone. Or the second one, which I think is more likely where we go, is okay, now I've got to absolutely scramble to get this under control as quickly as possible. Yes. And and and actually, I think one of the other difficult errors there is I've got to scramble to get this under control as quickly as possible and get it back to where it should have been. That's exactly right. As close as possible. As close as possible to where I thought this was going. And that's the thing about control, is we're constantly trying to pin it down to the idea that we originally had or we have in our head, rather than this is taking a new, you know. If you imagine it's a pathway to a destination and it's suddenly gone a sharp left into a secret garden, and you're like, how do we get back onto the tarmac? Yeah. And you're like, no, oh, the improviser mindset is ah, okay, this might take a little longer. Yeah. I might do something different. Might do something different. What's possible in here? What have I not ever seen or heard of that's in here? So that's the improviser mindset. So it really and it m it moves perfectly onto our it can feel it can feel a bit frightening there, because of course it's something that you don't know. 100%. This is we we once ran a process, didn't we? Yeah, or yeah, I ran it years and years ago, where we had qualities of an improviser and qualities of a stand-up comedian. Yes. And within a team, you had to go and sort of stand where you felt was more you. And of course, the thing about a stand-up comedian, not all stand-up comedians, but more more often it's scripted, it's tight, you know. Stand-up comedians talk about, you know, a tight 20. That's your tight 20-minute material. It's super scripted. If you go and see that show twice, all the parts that looked really improvised are absolutely scripted. And other than the odd heckle, that is fixed. Yeah. Whereas, and that's your security. Now, comedians get better and better at dealing with hecklers, and that makes them. And some and some actually have and some have an improviser skill. Yeah. The improviser's security never comes from a script. The improviser's security, a little bit like the integrative therapist's security, comes from knowing that you can deal with the unknown. Yeah, and and that is I mean, that for me is like it's like gold. That's like nothing else. Because if you've got a script, great, like we've got a script. But to walk into a room, to stand in front of an audience, and to absolutely know that whatever happens, if those lights go out, if someone shouts at you, that you can work with that and make it into something, it's the most secure, confident feeling you can ever have. We saw we saw a couple of stand-up comedians recently, didn't we, Phil? Where there was a support act and he he wasn't very experienced. He was he was alright, he was pretty good. The main guy, we we he was great. And and one of the big differences because both of them did have a slightly interactive format with the audience. And of course, I remember you turning to me during the the warm-up act and just saying, but there was such an obvious pickup there, there was such an obvious integration of something that had happened before. And of course, he hadn't trained himself enough to feel confident enough to take what he was getting, so he was a little bit more trying to stay on his script. Yes, whereas the main performer was just working with the first with whatever came out. And was actually quite comfortable to stretch it out for quite a long time without any laughs because he knew he could find a way to build it up to something. And that you've just spoken to something really, really important here. That all the time that we're in control or block or panic, and this has come up a lot with clients recently, you're probably on a your speedometer is probably running high because that that mode of being is running hard to keep in control. And so one of get things back on track, get things back on track and know what's happening. So one of the first things to do to that you have to learn as an improviser, two big things. One is you have to open up the space, you have to open up the possibility. And in rehearsals, that means it's a bit clunky because you're kind of trying to work things out a bit more, but you have to take a moment, take a beat, and that's a really good message for meetings. Yes. Yeah. And the second thing is that you have to really, really be present and listen because your absolute security is standing right in front of you. Yes. It's right in the moment. There's the bridge is there. That exactly. That that is that that's where the bridge is. And it's sort of it's weird when you don't, when you're not used to it. Because you think you should own the bridge, but someone else is going to give you something that has to claim the bridge. But that problem that's just come in, you know, we've got to take a whatever cut on our resources, or that that deadline is never going to happen. That's your opportunity, that's the bridge. And and with an improviser mindset, your yes and becomes okay, we've got a month's delay on the deadline. What else is possible in that month? That means by the time we get to the destination, our product is gilded in gold. Yeah. Because we've got more like what else is possible? So you're always thinking like that. So you're listening. If we've got less resource, what does that mean? Like who gets to upskill because there's less people to do like what whatever it is, you're looking for the opportunities. And I love that you talked about training earlier, which I'm sure we'll talk about throughout, because I I I can often feel that some people think, well, you you know, you either have this gift or you don't. It's a th it's it's who you are. And I I just don't think that's true. Yeah, it's not true. And in fact, what's really interesting, remembering this, I'm thinking I've talked about this before. When I was offered improv classes after I'd graduated from drama school, and I'm sure I've talked about this, there were two options a play reading group and an improv group, and of course, no one wanted to do the improv group, you know. And what's interesting about that, and then there were no places left on the on the play read on the playwright or playwriting or play reading. And what's interesting about that is even as actors, we were all even blocking the idea of going into a going into an experience where we wouldn't have a script. Yeah. So even before the training, we were already blocking that experience. That's how unnerving it is. Yeah. And of course, oh thank goodness that the other class was full, you know, because that training was absolutely game-changing. So yes and is one of the cornerstones. So yes, and is the cornerstone is just sit back, take a breath, give it some space, and ask, okay, and what's possible off the back of that. That really speaks to rigidity versus resilience. You can really notice it in your body. Yeah. You know, you can notice the contraction and the tension, and the people don't breathe. They stop breathing. And that rigidity that's saying, no, no, no, no, no, stop, stop, stop. The actually you can work with the body. You watch your gestures as well. I mean, yeah, watch your gestures getting tight. We talk about if your palms are down or your arms are folded. Absolutely. All of those things are basically saying we're putting back, we're we're retreating. Exactly. Palms open, palms open, broader gesture, soften, soften your shoulders. The body's now saying, I think we're okay. I mean, you can do so much with the body. And that's another thing that definitely happens in improvisation training is you know, you've got the adrenaline when you're walking on for the first time on to on the stage, but you're not in that state all the time. You're absolutely in it. You're so in it that you're not worried about what might happen. Yes. You're just in it. I can't describe it in any other way. You're responding. What I love about great improvisation shows, and many of yours, which I which I came to watch, is I mean, obviously you're you're performing, you're acting, but nevertheless, it's the enthusiasm with which you grab the offer from the audience. I mean, it could be absolutely bag of chips. Yeah, rubbish. Yeah. And you go, oh, brilliant bag of chips, and you grab it. And I often I often use that expression in coaching, which is what's the gift? What's the gift? Take the gift.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yeah.

Failure As Feedback With Games

SPEAKER_01 21:49

And it doesn't always feel like it's a gift, but that's that's the other piece of the training is the enthusiasm with which you respond to it. I love it. Absolutely. That actually there's nothing more, there's nothing more wonderful. Than you know, you're doing a Shakespeare scene, and then you know, you pull out the dagger and say, Tomorrow the king must die. And the other person doesn't say, Oh, but shall we wait till Tuesday? You know, they say yes, and they pull out their dagger and say, two daggers, one to the back and one to the front, we'll teach him the lesson that he must. You know, and you're just like, Yay! Now we're now we're cooking. Well, the other thing about this as well, just to bear in mind, is of course, it runs through the improv, is it makes the other person look good as well. So if you if you've imagine you're in a meeting and somebody says, you know, this has been a bit derailed, we need to change the agenda. Of course, the people that either try and get things back on track or say, Well, you didn't tell us, and they're not only blocking, but they're making the other person either look or feel bad. And nobody wants that. And nobody wins. Nobody wins. Whereas great improvisers will be like, You're amazing, and I'm amazing. And actually, one of our points is to really normalize and celebrate change in the in the micro moment. So when someone says, you know, I'm sorry, I've got to report, there's no way we're gonna make that deadline, Bob. And Bob gets praise this time, Pem, because Bob usually gets the crap. Thank you so much for giving us advance warning on that and letting us know that means we can we can that you really say yes to it. Okay, great. What do we know? Yeah, what does that tell us? So, exactly that, we'll come to that, but there are really basic practices that you can um incorporate into your meetings. That's that's the training. Reframing failure as feedback. I mean, this is an absolute classic. So I'm gonna say that again. Reframing failure as feedback. I mean, this is absolutely one of the key parts of improviser training, that muscle is that when you're in rehearsal, that is what you're doing. And here's the thing about it when you fail. Yeah, exactly that. When it doesn't work, you're all in that going, what happened there? Why didn't that what what would have been and yet that's so the rest of the cast doesn't go, oh feel. Yeah, I feel that was rubbish. You're so rubbish. You'd probably keep going. You might keep going for a bit and then unpick it. And well, you might keep going with the scene, and then it's it's becoming very effortful, and you've gone so off track, or or you're not in alignment with each other, and then you'd you'd probably complete it, and then you'd and then you'd unpick it. Yeah, you'd unpick why but not like no person. No, you'd just be so curious. And in fact, there's even what didn't work there, yeah. Yeah, what happened there? Or not even what didn't work, but what what happened there? What could have what could have happened? And there's even a game that's so brilliant, and you don't play this with new people because it's quite brutal, but it's brilliant, is you have brutal but brilliant. Brutal but brilliant. You have a game called continue or thank you, and this is the best feedback game where you have to get up one by one and do a solo scene, and you get 30 seconds, and then you go to the your audience or your teammates and you say continue or thank you. And they say if they're really enjoying it and they're engaged, they say continue, and if they're bored, they say thank you. And the feedback is and this is great for storytelling and presentations what is it that that person does who keeps getting told continue? And so you're literally getting feedback in real time of what is engaging an audience, yeah, and observing. And if you come at it from a game, continue or thank you, it's absolutely brilliant because you're learning for yourself and you're also watching other people. What is it that they're doing storytelling-wise in a solo improv scene that means people keep saying, and it it's the most extraordinary learning. What one of the areas I see this, Phil, is on Would I Lie to You? Yeah, the panel show. And there's a particular comedian in the UK called Bob Mortimer, and I saw a clip of him the other day on this on this show, and you have to kind of you have to make up stories, and they might be true, they might might be lies.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

And he was talking about the fact that he'd replaced one of the back seats of his car and installed a toilet. And it's it was sort of funny, but not funny.

The Comfort Zone Trap

SPEAKER_01 26:28

But he he kept going, and everybody was just like open mouthed on every word he was saying because you sort of you couldn't believe he was saying it, and you couldn't believe where it was gonna go. Yeah, and it's not it wasn't even about being quippy and quippy and funny, but there was something about him that you think I could listen to you talk about this toilet in the backseat of a car for another half an hour. Yeah, and it's I I I don't exact I can't exactly pinpoint what it was, but as you say, you have to really observe it to work out what he's doing. And it's usually about engagement and promising, so it's usually about how engaged you are. Yeah. So if you think about a speaker in a presentation, if you're not interested in it, then we're going. So if you're interested in it, number one, and the second one is you keep setting up you keep setting up promises. At the end of 30 seconds, you want a you want a promise. So at the end of 30 seconds, we have to know why. Yes, what why was there a toilet in the back? The second 30 seconds might be who used it? You know, but you're constantly setting up questions. I think this is what he did. So he said something like, He was talking about the toilet, everyone was sort of like this can't be used in the country. And then eventually he said, Well, you know, because it's really useful, you said, because obviously when you're on long journeys between between gigs, you don't want to stop. So now your question is, who's driving? How do you not stop? Yeah, exactly. So that's a really good example, exactly that. So now you've got questions of is there a curtain around it? Is it exposed? Do you how long is your how long is your exactly? Who's where's is what does the driver do? That's actually that is his genius. Exactly. So your promise. Question, questions, questions. That's really good for you. Anyway, so we've started off. So reframing failure as feedback. If you can, if you can create that in your team, that is gold. Absolutely gold. And again, anything that you can gamify. So if you can do anything like the kind of continue or thank you, or the quickest per the quickest person to give the one piece of feedback that's going to change the game in this media, if you can gamify it, it really helps people in terms of the mindset that they're in. And is it is it worth saying? Because in the example you've given, that is a collective feedback. Probably that's a really nice way to go. What have we learned? Definitely a nice way to start, isn't it? Because it's much less threatening, exactly. We don't want to be picked out from the tribe as being the you know the the one. You failed, basically, basically, but only you, Bob. Right. Um comfort zone trap. Love this. So the idea that we can become more flexible through change and still feel as comfortable as we are in no change. Madness. In no change. Madness, exactly, absolute madness. So that's why what you just said is how do you start at the foothills of the Alp and not send people up to the top, you know, with nothing but a sausage roll and a bit you know, you've got to, it's gotta be tolerable for people. If you're sending people so far out of their comfort zone that it's panic. So a step at a time. A step at a time. What exactly, you know, change the kitchenette, you know, change the agenda on the meeting. Just you know, get people used to the idea of flexing through change, practice on something that's lower stakes, because you you're what really what you're training your body to do, really at the end of the day, what improviser training is doing is it's training your nervous system to not panic when you're throwing something unexpected. That really is all it is, really. I mean, yes, you need the creative responses, but that really is about your own resources, how much you read and watch and your own, the own your own the links you've got in your brain. That's another piece, that's your own creativity. But really, the training is can I stay completely calm and present in change? If I was to bring this into the context of work, and I've had conversations about this very recently, of course, it's happening all the time now where curveballs are coming in, agendas are being changed, big problems are arising. And what the response does tend to be for those of you know, and we'll all have different experiences in terms of our nervous system, in terms of how overstimulated or overwhelmed they get by by those changes. We will tend to either slightly ignore the body or just accept that that's how we feel, and then we'll go on to the next meeting, and there'll probably be something difficult in there. And I hear so often how we don't take a few seconds even to take care of the nervous system. Yeah. So we're A, we're in constant overwhelm, and B, we kind of never regulate around the change. So we always fear it. Yeah. So if you imagine as a leader or a manager of a team naming something that's that's happening or that's new, that's changed, that's a problem, taking a breath and then checking in with the team. Let me check what's come up for you. Let's take 20, 20, 30 seconds just to notice what how that impacted you and what that feels like. And you don't even have you don't have to go around the room, but if you've named it, you've normalized it. And that means now everyone around the room, some people would be like, nothing, I'm fine. I don't, that's you know, I'm used to it. And some people might be really overwhelmed. But if you've given them the space to name that something is going on for them, now it's normal. It's normal. Yeah. And it's in the room. And that's it. So that come that allows the top of the adrenaline spike to be nipped off, to be cut off. I've normalized it, people know it's happening. Now I'm slightly nearer my comfort zone.

Let Go Of The Original Plan

SPEAKER_00 31:35

And it's another way of training yourself, isn't it? To to feel more comfortable in change.

Daily Meeting Tools For Agility

SPEAKER_01 31:39

Well, if you think about athletic training, um, even us going to the gym, not quite the Olympics. I don't mind branding myself as an athlete, Phil, I have to say. But what you're doing is all the time you're constantly pushing at the edge. You're not going suddenly to to lift 70 kilograms. You're you're pushing, pushing, pushing. I think I might have taken a couple of steps back this holiday. I don't think Mark, our gym instructor, is going to be happy with my intake of hot cross buns. I'm not sure Cake and Netflix is part of the channel. Okay, uh, next one on the list is letting go of the original plan. So that's the big thing in improv, of course. You've got an idea of where this scene is going. I want to tie this in with route versus destination. And I think there's there's sort of both paradoxes and similarities in both of these. You can still hold the desk your your kind of target or your destination. I think part of letting go of the original plan is how you're going to get there. Now, it might it might look different when you're when you get there, but it it would have always looked different. Like we cannot predict the future exactly. But you can still, I think the one of the things to hold on to is we're still going towards growth, or we're still going towards building a digital platform. We're still going there, but the absolute minutiae of how you think you should get there is gonna shift. So really know the difference between destination and route. That you can hold on to something, yeah, but it's just not as fixed as you think it is. Or hold on to the original plan very lightly. Lightly, absolutely, lightly, absolutely, Pem. And and actually, another good trick here is you don't have to sit in the not knowing forever and ever. If something changes in a team meeting, you know, what again, one of the skills of improvisers is that they're not then staying, you know, some somebody says nylon stockings in the drawer. You're not then standing there in a sort of fog of not knowing. Actually, you're very quickly assessing and making a new plan. So, in a way, that idea of sitting in the unknown is sort of false. You because actually you're what you're constantly you're constantly updating. It's actually more of a fluid updating. Well, the other thing I'd say about letting go of the original plan and also, you know, maybe holding it lightly but focusing on the route is firstly, well, who are you what are you focused on? Are you focused purely on whatever that goal or target is, or are you also focused on the people that you're with and how they're feeling and also what they're learning as you go through that route? So it might mean you need to change the route to learn more. So really focusing on that. And then, secondly, if I think about the podcast we did on spiral dynamics, if we think about the difference between orange, which is very sort of strategic, a little bit more short-term, you know, really hitting that goal, and yellow, which is disruptive bigger thinking. Of course, if we are so fixed on holding on to the original plan, we may well miss bigger opportunities. So we're we're fearful that we won't hit it because we're gonna come in lower, but we might have come in higher. Well, the and the best improvisers are, of course, a mixture of those two. The best improvisers are right with you in the moment and ready to flex, and they're constantly holding on to the goal and just shifting and shifting and shifting slightly. What could it be? What could it be? What could it be? But they're holding it exactly. Um, agility as a daily practice, we're gonna come to that. So very quickly, instead of asking, it's choosing curiosity over judgment. So asking what if, instead of, you know, this shouldn't happen. Yeah, you know, what's possible? We're gonna come to more of those. Okay, love these. So, really practical tools we're gonna give you here. Number one, open your meeting, not with how is everyone? So because we do silence. And as we know, that question just gets really complicated the older you get, because you're like, uh, it's a mixed bag over here, to be quite frank. Yeah, do you know I had this conversation? Because I have to say, years ago, we used to often open with word clouds, how are you feeding? And I had this conversation with a client yesterday in terms of opening a meeting in a slightly different way. And and this client said, Yeah, you know, you get all the words in the word clouds, and then you're like, and what do I do with that? So here's an opener for here's an opener for your meeting. Hi everyone, right? What's changed since we last met? So, what's changed is one of your training tools to normalise, not just normalise, but open with not only do I know things have changed, I hope they have I expect things have changed. Things cannot not have changed. So let's open with that. Love that, love that. So what's changed? Use yes and as a meeting rule. We would say anyway, no butts to ideas. Replace that won't work with what would it take. It's one of my favorites. Yeah. And it's got to get creative. And even as a practice, for those of you, those of you sitting here thinking, yeah, but Bob said this, Bob had this idea in the meeting.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

And I knew it wouldn't work.

Leadership Habits That Reward Flexibility

Practical Wrap Up And Closing

SPEAKER_01 36:39

You know what? You can win-win with this. Because even if you think, even if you absolutely know that's never gonna work, you can flush it out with say, this would take a budget of six billion dollars to light. Or ask Bob, say, okay, Bob, I'm really hearing that idea that we, you know, relocate to Mars. What would it take? And ask the question. Because then then you're not on your own with it. Then you can all look at it. You're not blocking, you're not blocking. You're going, Bob, great! Okay, Bob Gray. Okay. Next one. Build in your pivot moment. And what this means. I'm gonna use that one of my kids, by the way. Yeah, what would it take? It's so good, isn't it? It's so good. Build in a pivot moment. And what this means is right bang in the middle of your agenda or conversation, ask this question. Is what we're discussing still the right problem to solve? And even if you think it is, that again is a really good training practice because you're modelling and training the people in the room to it's okay if we if we turn left here. It's okay, exactly, to acknowledge we might be at a junction in the road and I'm happy to turn left. We don't just have to carry on blindfolded and stumbling over rocks. We might have to turn left. So are we pivot? Exactly. Pivot. Is what we're discussing still the right problem to solve? You need to be asking that at least once a week with colleagues every day. Love these. This is such a good one because it's so obvious. Normalise, I don't know yet. I like the word yes. Exactly! Yeah, that's the word, isn't it? Yes, I don't know yet. Sometimes I fill that in for people. If they say something. Yes, me too. Yeah, I I can't. I can't do that. I can't do it yet. It's it's one of the most powerful. Yeah, one of my daughters said, I'm not very good at French yet. You know, it's it's the word. If you imagine just just for a moment, imagine what that's doing to your neural pathways. Yes. It's saying we're going there. Yeah. And I'm already on the path. I'm on the path. I'm doing I'm headed there. So normalize, I don't know yet. So, you know, what's happening with the you know, that new contract or that new client, or what's happening with our supply chain? I don't know yet. That's better than I don't know. Yeah, but then I don't know. Honesty is good as well. You get the honesty in there. Okay. Acknowledging that not having all the answers during change is not weakness. Actually, it's really reassuring. I want to be with a person who says, I don't know yet. But we're and I'm keeping an open mind. Yeah, exactly. I'm keeping an open mind up. We'll find out, great. Oh, I love this one. Next one. What do you need to feel confident moving forward? Now, if you imagine, are you okay? So you're in your you're you're struggling, Pen, struggling with change. I'm your leader. That's quite, yeah, it's quite we can we can we can pretend we can pretend. So I could ask Penny, are you okay? If you're my leader, I'd say, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's fine. Yeah, no, it's fine. Yeah, it's a bit tough, but it's fine. Or I could say, what do you need to feel confident to move forward? Isn't that good? Yeah, I like that. It's so focusing, it's so action-oriented. And even if you say, I don't know, you say, okay, would it be helpful if we would it be helpful if we had to talk about that? Or we found one or two things that would help you feel more confident. Yes, it definitely would. Already I feel better. Yeah, great. Oh, I love this one. You love all of these. I love all of these. Narrate your own adaptations. Now, this comes from the military, from like oh yeah. Yes. You've mentioned that. Yeah, that there's a nice piece of research on this that that in moments of very high tension action within the military, soldiers are trained to verbalize what's happening. So this is this is a this is a gives a solidity to this is for trauma in the moment. You know, if you're wounded, you you might talk it through. I'm gonna uh I'm tourniqueting the arm, I'm like you're talking it through because it brings it into the free prefrontal cortex and it out of the emotional and it grounds you so you can narrate your own adaptations by saying, Okay, I've just had an email, that deadline's been missed. I'm updating my expectations on this project, and I'm updating my thinking on this because, and it makes you much, much more flexible in your in your thinking, and by narrating it out loud, you're really, really solidifying that. And also, I think that's so interesting about this is you're now not the passive person that it's happening to, you're a you're now the one who's the difference, exactly. You're the narrator. The difference between, oh my god, this change has come in and someone's told me I've got to. The difference between, ah, okay, this is coming, I'm updating my thinking, and I'm gonna change my decision. And you're in the middle of the way. If I was to make a reflection on this in terms of leadership through change, I would ask myself the question as a leader am I explicitly speaking enough in the present? So I think very often in change we can talk about how things were before the problems we've got. And if we're good, we can also talk about the vision in the future. Are we saying right now what we are doing is XYZ? And I think it serves a number of things, similarly to what you're saying. Brings us into the prefrontal cortex, brings us into more, feels us, makes us feel more certain. I also think it can help us understand we are active, we are doing this, it's not happening to us. That's it, 100%. And I think the present tense, particularly in the English language, actually. I mean, it's certainly in Italian and the French I'm learning, you use the present tense more often than in the English language. And I think it's useful in change. And it really speaks to that agentic, that ownership, that work that we know. Andrew Huberman did this work, didn't he, on activating your nervous system consciously through choice, that agency that you're in the middle of it. We at 4D, one of our favourite phrases is are you happening to the world or is the world happening to you? Really notice where the change is happening to you and how you can put yourself back in the centre of that narrative of that story. Lovely. Uh, the last one on sort of day-to-day colleagues, um, day-to-day habits with colleagues is create lessons not failure. So this goes back to less to feedback not failure. And you just ask the question, what are we doing? Well, this is our neural reframe, isn't it? It's not, it's not making things a disaster, failure, or impossible. It's it's what have we learned. What have we learned? What are we learning here? Exactly. So ask that question. Um, and as and as the leader, you can put that in. Someone says, Oh, this has been terrible, it was a total disaster. Okay, great. What have we learned? This is it's a lot of this is sitting under that possibility mindset. Yeah, exactly. And then a couple of last ones for you as a leader. Celebrate course corrections publicly. I'm so pleased we've spotted this and chat. Yeah, and I really want to do a shout out to Bob, who has very quickly adapted and shifted the plan due to you know supply chain or whatever it is. I just a hundred, you know, I know that was tough, Bob, and I know it meant we lost some revenue there. I really want to thank your change, your flexibility there. So, really reward changing in thinking, quick, quick, quick change, quick flexibility in thinking. Assumption audits. So I love this. Again, it's a little bit like the question, are we still trying to solve the right problem here? Is what are we assuming that is still true here that we need to pressure test? It's like that pulling out in a meeting, isn't it? Not getting lost in the agenda. It's just pulling out and and just checking, yeah. Are we focused on the right stuff? What are we assuming here? Yeah. And I think sometimes that meta level of discussion in meetings gets lost when we're busy for change. Absolutely. And it and it does two things it does the short term and the long term. Because if you can pull out and say, what are we assuming here? You might be assuming that those raw materials are going to be delivered on time. And if you pull out and you you challenge that, you're just gonna be much more ready. You're gonna be much more agile. Model comfort with ambiguity from the top. And you know, this is again a really kind of obvious one, but again, it's it's naming it. The difference between the leader who, you know, is managing the project and the plan, then going home. Saying to his loved one or her loved one, yeah, it was a really good day. Yeah, I'm really comfortable with change. Tell your team that. Tell your people that. Oh, Penebi's got 11 impressions on LinkedIn. Oh well. So name it. Name, name in the moment when something comes in, when you know that email or that piece of information comes in and the team is panicked, acknowledge how they feel and say, I'm okay with this. Yeah. I'm I'm okay with with this sudden change. So let's decide what we're going to do from here. So the more you can name it, it's narrative, narrative, narrative, isn't it? We've said so many times through this series: if you leave the gap in communication, other people will fill it in with the panic and the fear. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, create the narrative. And, you know, don't expect all the panic and the fear to disappear. You know, as human beings, we are averse to change for many reasons. I guess what I really love about this episode and those kind of improviser mindset, growth mindset uh tools that you've given is they are so concrete and tangible in the language piece, which is not always the space at 4D where we spend all of our time. We're very, very interested in our intentional self, in our physical self, in our emotional self. And of course, though those parts of us, particularly the emotional and physical, are the pieces that get kind of hijacked through change and uncertainty. And yes, we can do lots of work in terms of regulating our nervous system, checking in with our emotions, changing ourselves physically, in terms of our behaviors, which we talk a lot about. What these tools are doing is they are giving us a clear structured language to enter in through that intellectual dimension to create a different intention through change. Yeah, absolutely they could not be more tangible. If you just for yourself notice the difference on your own between asking yourself, am I okay? and what one thing is going to help me feel more confident. Notice how it feels for you. That's how it feels for other people. And I think sometimes if we stick and stop at talking about mindset, which is hugely important, I think sometimes it can be difficult to get a grasp on okay. What do I do with that? Yeah, I want to have a growth mindset, I want to have a possibility mindset. What does that mean? Well, this is a really great routine. Yeah. Good. So good luck with that. Go be agile. We're gonna go and be agile and flexible on our hillock, on a windy hillock uh here on Aaron. So uh yeah, that was the end of our change. I know. Serious. Let's go change into our walking gift, Bill. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the 40 Human Being Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. Do take on board some of the insights, tools, and tips because every time that you try something new to get back to choice, you are making a vote for the you that you want to become. And I I love that phrase, Pen. I do too. And please do share this episode with somebody that you know would really benefit from the lessons and learnings we've been chatting about today. And of course, if you're interested in more from 4D Human Being, do get in touch. We run workshops, trainings online, in person, conference events and keynotes. We've got the 4D on-demand platform for your whole organization, and we do have a free essentials membership where anybody can sign up for absolutely free to access some of our insights, tools, and tips. So do get in touch with us if you'd like to hear more. We cannot wait to hear from you and to carry on the conversation.