Making the Pie Bigger

We all face difficult situations at work and in life. The context in which we operate also plays a role in rendering what we see different. I often talk about the importance of culture in an organization. That goes to context - people watch the walk. 

Culture and environment are especially important today, because the best way for many organizations to get out of where they got stuck is to make the pie bigger - not fight over whatever smaller slice anyone can get their hands on.

This is also innovation-thinking. 

Chris Guillebeau wrote his thoughts about expanding the pie. I echo many of his sentiments on a very  personal level and I can tell you that a life of true abundance take tremendous courage to live. Chris quotes one of my favorite people - ultra marathon runner Dean Karnazes. If you haven't read his book Ultramarathon Man do pick it up.

In thinking about his question - what can be done to move from scarcity to abundance within my professional life, a few things come to mind.

• Mentoring would be good - you don't need to create a program, just join a person at your office or in your personal network (one good use of Twitter?) and help them out.
• Helping others - without being asked, without needing to take credit. Even better when they cannot pay you back in influence, etc.
• Listening - amazing how this applies to about anything valuable. To put it with Hugh - Real men don't need to solve a problem all the time (even in a blog post). Real men can just listen.
• Appreciating the difference between "what we stand for" (which should never change) and "how we do things" (which should never stop changing) - directly from Jim Collins.
• Remaining curious - this also means believing in yourself enough not to take yourself too seriously.

This is something that has worked well for me. Whenever I feel the crushing weight of the world on my shoulders, it's usually because I put it there. Instead of doing more of what has (clearly) not worked, I do something else.

That involves reaching out to my team, often expanding the view of what could be done, and my definition of team as well. Wisdom often comes from discovering that we're all connected and success depends on us all working together.

Is it time to circle back and expand our horizons to make the pie bigger? Wasn't that the promise of social media? With a caveat - we cannot all be experts at everything, can we?

Comments

[Howard Kang]

I definitely think people should be conscious about not being stuck in the fixed-pie perception and work towards "expanding the pie" and creating value to work with.

I think sometimes though, there are situations where people can't go beyond a "when I lose, you win" attitude. Job hunting can be seen that way. However, a good way to expend the pie would be to share connections or contacts one may have, but not particularly be interested in.

I think the greater challenge is creativity in adding value. Like you said it requires a lot of listening and requires a genuine knowledge of the parties involved. I can't give you all of the crust and take all the filling if I never knew you loved the crust and hating the filling.

[Hayli @ Rise Smart]

I think curiosity and listening go hand in hand. When we stop being curious about our environment and think we know it all, we're a lot more likely to shut down and stop listening. And in addition to point 2, "helping others," I would add, "allow others to help you." If you're undertaking a large project or initiative, perhaps at the request of your boss, invite feeback and brainstorming from others. It will elevate others' opinion of you and will very likely enrich your endeavor.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Howard - do you think the "win/lose" mindset stems from insecurities? Paying attention to the signals and, excellent addition, being creative do help a lot in tempering the survival instinct that leads to scarcity thinking.

@Hayli - it is often much more difficult to allow others to help you. You're spot on with that one. Approaching everyone as a potential teacher is very enriching. Thank you for expanding the conversation.