Phil Marsland - Work Better: Get Out There In These Challenging Times

In this new series Work Better we take a look at workplace through the lens of Phil Marsland. He continues this month by looking at the importance of getting out there and networking

It's easy in challenging times to turn inwards, to hunker down. The current political and social climate in this country and wider afield are uncertain to say the least. But, I would suggest that now is not the time to hunker down. Now is the time to get out there.

When times are tough it’s easy to tend to look for comfortable re-assurance, for like minded people, for positive re-enforcement of what you already do instead of getting out there.

If all is going well, then that is excellent. But if you are facing tough challenges, then keeping on doing the same thing and expecting different results is... well I'll let you google the quotation.

In business these challenges could be about creativity, competing for talent, productivity or your competitiveness. Thinking the same will not help you, as your actions are likely to be the same. Thinking differently however requires something else.

One of the best ways I know is to go to events in order to spark your thinking and to talk to people that you don’t know, people who do wildly different things to you. Recently I’ve enjoyed diverse conversation at Brand Yorkshire, Make it York and Humber HR events, adding to those at my professional Annual Conference with the CIPD.

The people I have engaged with have been entrepreneurs, consultants, a photographer, business leaders, a wealth manager, sales leader, a marketing expert, a wellbeing business, several academic institutions, a gunshot manufacturer, a charitable trust manager, a copywriter and a courage queen! To name but a few.

When you’re there you also need a growth mindset (see the work of Carol Dweck). Put simply this means being prepared to listen and understand views, thoughts and ideas that are different to your own current views and experiences. You don’t have to agree with them of course, but hearing it will help you to think more creatively. The opposite of this is a fixed mindset where you only hear and see things that re-inforce your current view. Dismissing everything that you don’t already agree with.

Social media doesn’t help us with this. Showing us things that are the same as things that we have 'liked' through clever algorithms. This also drives intolerance and divisive polarisation of groups. Hanging around with the same people all the time is a mirror of this algorithm.

Coming back to my main point here are a few tips for you to get the most benefit out of getting of your own personal echo chamber: