Everybody's weird

23/3/2013

My boss had been reading John Ortberg’s ‘Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them’ and it was time for us to plan our annual leadership team retreat. Looking for a theme title, he suggested half-jokingly, ‘How about ‘Everybody’s Weird’?’ I laughed at first but then thought for a moment…what a great concept and idea. It felt inspired. How to blow away any sense of normality and conformity and to meet each other afresh as we really are. Our creativity lies in our unique weirdness and what a great way to explore our individual quirkyness and its potential for the team and organisation.

Every group, every team, develops its own normative behaviours. Some even prescribe them by developing explicit competency and behavioural frameworks. It provides a sense of identity, stability and predictability. It can also improve focus and how people work together by establishing a set of ground rules, how we can be at our best. The flip side of all of this is that a team can begin to feel too homogeneous, too bland. It can lose its creative spark, its innovative spirit. The challenge was how to rediscover our differences, our wonderful, exciting, diversity in all its weird complexity.

We invited people to bring objects that represented something significant in their personal lives and to share their stories. We invited people to use psychometrics to explore their preferences to shared them in the group. We invited them to challenge the psychometric frames, not to allow themselves to be too categorised. We invited people to challenge stereotypes, to break the moulds they felt squeezed or squeezed themselves into, to look intently for what they didn’t normally notice in themselves and each other, to allow themselves to be surprised and inspired by what they discovered.

It felt like an energetic release. People laughed more, some cried more, others prayed deeply together. The burden of leadership felt lighter as people connected and bonded in a new way. It felt easier to challenge and to encourage. By relaxing into each other and themselves, people became more vibrant, more colourful, less stressed. They saw fresh possibilities that lay hidden from sight before. They discovered more things they liked about each other, fresh points of common passion, interest and concern. They built new friendships that eased their ways of working. It felt more like team.

What space do you and your organisation allow for weirdness? Do you actively seek, nurture and reward differences? Do your leadership style and culture bring out and celebrate individuals’ strange idiosyncracies, each person’s unique God-given gifts, talents and potential? Have you had experiences where a capacity for weirdness has enhanced your team or organisation’s creativity and innovation? Do you risk inadvertently squeezing out the best of weirdness by policies and practices that drive towards uniformity? Could a bit more weirdness be more inspiring and effective – and fun?! :)

78 Comments

Helen Askey

23/3/2013 10:34:48 am

Thanks for this Nick, my wish is for a bring your true self to work day, maybe once a year!!!

Nick Wright

23/3/2013 10:43:16 am

Hi Helen. I like it! :) I was thinking maybe something along the lines of a World Weirdness Week. ;) With best wishes. Nick

Michelle McArthur-Morgan link

23/3/2013 12:20:31 pm

Nick - thanks for sharing this, I only wish more organisations would dare to allow their people the space to be true to themselves and celebrate their weirdness and individuality. One of the workshops we deliver is called I'm not wierd, I'm just different, which focuses upon increasing awareness of self and others

23/3/2013 12:36:21 pm

Hi Michelle and thanks for the note. My sense is that some organisations try so hard to tightly manage, organise and streamline everyone and everything in order to be 'effective' that they inadvertently squeeze the life, inspiration and energy out of the organisation that would actually enable it to be effective. I would far rather work in an organisation that allows and nurtures humanity in all its richness and diversity to shine through, even if it makes it feel more messy and complex at times. I love the name of your workshop and would love to hear more about how you approach it. Would you be happy to say a bit more? With best wishes. Nick

Keri Phillips

24/3/2013 04:06:33 am

Hello Nick, An additional perspective might also be that starting to feel weird can also be part of the learning process. For example, beginning to re-think or relinquish the familiar whilst being unclear about where this might lead. ' I am not quite myself'. So a team where there is permission to be / express weirdness may be a way of generating a 3rd position perspective from which it becomes a little easier to take stock. Thank you again for a thought- provoking post. Keri

24/3/2013 04:19:30 am

Hi Keri and thanks for adding such an interesting and valuable angle on this topic. Curiously, I was discussing a very similar perspective with a friend yesterday, how we can feel weird, prickly and disorientated in unfamiliar circumstances, e.g. new job, team, organisation or culture, and how those environments can appear weird to us for a time too. It's that, 'I am not quite myself' feeling you describe. As you say, it often happens at the learning edges, places and times when new opportunities for learning can arise.

I'm aware of shifting moods and ego states too, from moment to moment and day to day, sometimes without apparent explanation. I once commented to a colleague that the only thing that feels consistent for me is my inconsistency! As human beings and groups, I'm convinced we are far more dynamically complex than many organisations are prepared to accept or feel they can cope with. I wonder how much creativity and energy is lost by trying to play or enforce stability and consistency. With best wishes. Nick

25/3/2013 02:45:07 am

You usefully point, Nick, to the question of what ' helpers' ( coaches, counsellors, therapists ) do to acknowledge and work with their own weirdness in order to support clients in acknowledging and working with their weirdness. In the activity you describe above you seem to have done a great job in balancing the familiar and the unfamiliar for your clients. My guess is that for you to do that so well, you needed to be able to do that for yourself. Perhaps your Christian beliefs enable you to do that. They perhaps support your stability and consistency, whilst also enabling you to push boundaries and explore possibilities. Obviously, I am simply speculating. Each helper will, I guess, have her/ his own unique way of believing/ doing/ being in order to seek to achieve such a balance both for themselves and to seek to support their clients. In my experience teams of helpers ( e.g. Consultancy teams) can have a fascinating journey with each other as they explore such dimensions in order then to offer the best support and challenge to their client organisation.

28/3/2013 11:17:36 pm

Thanks Keri for sharing further fascinating insights. I really liked your emphasis on the helper 'acknowledging and working with their own weirdness in order to support clients in acknowledging and working with their weirdness'.

I hand't thought about it clearly in that way before but I do agree with you that my Christian beliefs enable me at some level 'to push boundaries and explore possibilities' from what attachment theorists might describe as a 'secure base'.

I agree that teams can, similarly, create a secure base, enabling those within the team to offer the best support and challenge both within and beyond the team. Without such a base, helpers can become self-protective, defensive, closed or collusive which inhibits their own growth as well as their value to the client.

With thanks again and best wishes. Nick

Mark Leonard

24/3/2013 08:12:14 am

We live in a society which has increasingly relied on taking things to pieces, defining them, standardising and measuring them in an attempt to control. We miss the big picture, strangle the potential of the unexpected and forget that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

24/3/2013 08:21:38 am

Hi Mark and thanks for the interesting comments. On the question of defining, standardising and measuring etc. you may find this blog interesting that I posted in the week: http://www.nick-wright.com/1/post/2013/03/leadership-as-a-relational-dynamic.html. It includes a quotation from Nevis that fits well with your final comment about the whole. Let me know what you think? With best wishes. Nick

24/3/2013 04:41:47 pm

Nick, I agree with the theme in your article: http://www.nick-wright.com/1/post/2013/03/leadership-as-a-relational-dynamic.html

Each thing is relative in that it exists in a context, arises from it's causes and conditions, is a compound of sub units arranged in a particular way, and is what it is because of the way we perceive it to be.

In brief, this is a Buddhist view of the relative truth of things, which is always going to conventional and be deceptive, above.

What happens when we take something apart? We find the parts out of which that something is made. What is the difference between the something and the pile of parts of it? It's just the way those parts are related to each other. What if we take apart each of the parts of the something? Ultimately there is nothing to be found. How can we then say that things are made up of the arrangement of non-existent things?

This above is the absolute truth of things from a Buddhist perspective, above. Nothing exists intrinsically of itself. Yet things arise out of their causes and conditions as if by magic and they obey laws of causality.

There is value in seeing things in different ways but we get trapped if we see things in too fixed a way. We to have an overview of things and we need to see things from a relative perspective. We need to water and feed the rose plant and plant it in good soil with enough sun, We may need to prune it but we need to have faith in its ability to grow by itself. That is how we can cultivate not just roses but our own minds.

24/3/2013 04:47:59 pm

Hi Mark and thanks for sharing further reflections on this topic. I liked the question you posed: 'What is the difference between the something and the pile of parts of it?' I also really liked your comment that, 'We need to water and feed the rose plant and plant it in good soil with enough sun, We may need to prune it but we need to have faith in its ability to grow by itself.' It speaks to me of offering environment and interventions that stimulate growth without taking over and thereby inadvertently diminishing the rose. Very inspiring. With best wishes. Nick

Geoffrey Morton-Haworth

24/3/2013 08:13:16 am

Nick, speak for yourself.

Mark, exactly. In criticizing society, don't forget the harmful effects of education: in John Taylor Gatto's words, " a massive indoctrination and sorting system, robbing us of our children".

I have two sons. One came first in every subject and top of the form every single year at school, went on to Oxford, got a first, eventually graduated with a PhD in Maths and Philosophy with prizes and awards and equations to his name... and failed as a wannabe Don Draper (creative) in the real world. Not oddball enough.

The other fought his teachers every step of the way at school and university... and now runs his own highly-successful creative business.

24/3/2013 08:16:56 am

Hi Geoffrey, clearly I think society needs to change but I am not the first person to hold such a notion. However, I don't wish to criticise society in spite of it's faults. I like to look at the whole of things...

24/3/2013 08:28:41 am

Thanks Geoffrey. ;) Yes, it's curious how an eductation system can do so much to develop and release potential and yet, on the other hand, squeeze people into moulds that stifle their uniqueness and creativity. Thanks for sharing interesting examples of difference from your own family. With best wishes. Nick

Terrence Seamon

24/3/2013 08:14:31 am

Love that post, Nick. Thanks for sharing.

Let's hear it for the weirdos (that's us)!

24/3/2013 08:29:51 am

Haha, thanks Terrence. Amen to that! :) With best wishes. Nick

24/3/2013 04:38:32 pm

You have inspired me to do something like that in an upcoming team building engagement I am designing. Thanks.

24/3/2013 04:39:45 pm

Hi Terrence. Sounds exciting. I would be very interested to hear what you do and what happens. :) With best wishes. Nick

25/3/2013 09:36:08 am

I will circle back to you and let you know, Nick.

Meanwhile, another thought on your weird topic ;)

You ask, How far do we nurture weirdness? I'd say set your inner weirdo free!

The word weird is an oldie, going way back into the mists of our language's Indo-European roots. It's original meaning had something to do with fate or destiny.

It also may have meant "to become."

Putting that together creatively, maybe weird means to become what we are destined to be. This is now very close to the daimon idea, that we are born with a genius (as in genie) waiting to be discovered and awakened.

Caroline Bateman Sudhoff SPHR

24/3/2013 08:15:24 am

Nicely done Nick:-). It is going to be very interesting in the next few years to see how organizations rise above the lack of trust and respect that has been building. It's been a survive and thrive mentality of individuals versus inclusiveness of all weirdness without judgement:-). Keep posting as it will continue to inspire and not let folks get uninspired because of a bad experiences. Organizations truly have wonderfully resilient resources in their people if they honor them and let them JUST BE! Thanks for the inspirational post!

24/3/2013 08:35:25 am

Hi Caroline and thanks for such an inspiring response! I wonder if phenomena such as social media and postmodern cultural influences will gradually break down traditional control systems and perspectives, releasing fresh potential. I loved your emphasis on 'weirdness without judgement' and honouring people as they are. With best wishes. Nick

Mark Youngblood

24/3/2013 08:16:12 am

Now, there's out-of-the-box thinking!

24/3/2013 08:37:09 am

Hi Mark and thanks for the note. :) With best wishes. Nick

Mark Reutzel

24/3/2013 04:49:36 pm

We Embrace Individualism and Respect Diversity (WEIRD)! Hope it helps!

24/3/2013 04:50:30 pm

Hi Mark. That's a clever acronym. ;) With best wishes. Nick

Richard Bealing

25/3/2013 06:32:37 am

With respect this is all the wrong way round, people are not weird, "normality" that artificial construct designed to restrict and constrain and stultify the way we interact with the world and the fact that most of us go along with it willingly that, that is weird.

25/3/2013 06:36:48 am

Hi Richard and thanks for the interesting challenge. :) Your comments reminded me of the 'Matrix'. Is weirdness a property of the person or the system, or both? Weirdness is, of course, a matter of perspective...it all depends on what we consider to be normal, personally and culturally. Intriguing comment you pose...why do we 'go along with it'? With best wishes. Nick

25/3/2013 09:35:00 am

Hi Nick
Try substituting play or playful for weird. When you're a child you know there will be a time when playing will stop because it's not a thing adults do, or if they do they're "a bit weird". The session you describe in your post looks suspiciously like play to me. Regards Richard

Yellow Shed Girl

25/3/2013 11:59:02 am

@Richard. Love the replacing "weird" with playful. I agree completely and embrace being playful. Who ever told us we should lose that part of ourselves? And why did/do we listen?

25/3/2013 12:37:45 pm

Hi Yellow Shed Girl. Your comment to Richard reminded me of a sad story I heard years ago about a young girl who loved drawing horses from her imagination, lovely creative, colourful creatures, then was 'corrected' by her teacher and taught to draw horses 'properly'. Apparently, she never drew a horse again. I don't know if it's a true story or an apocraphal one but the inadvertent risks of some forms of education to creativity and underlying humanity are clear. With best wishes. Nick

27/3/2013 02:54:15 am

That was a sad story Nick…
As an artist and designer I know drawing is the output of seeing and we can be taught to look and see...
Seeing is the vision, drawing and art is the marks, patterns and shapes made - expressive forms.
Education and teaching should never squash but only expand the vision to see ... and to go to places previously unexplored...

Daniel Situka

25/3/2013 12:03:01 pm

wooh great

25/3/2013 12:05:12 pm

Thanks Daniel! :) Nick

Diana Brown

25/3/2013 12:09:25 pm

True wisdom comes to all of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us. Socrates wrote that jem, a long, long time ago.

I am reminded of the value and beauty we share when I read thoughtful posts like this Nick. Thank you.

25/3/2013 12:16:48 pm

Hi Diana and thanks for the encouraging feedback. I too like Socrates' approach to inquiry and learning, e.g. 'I only know that I know nothing.' With best wishes. Nick

Martine Bolton

26/3/2013 04:59:05 am

Fabulous idea for a team-build. I might steal it one day! Thanks Nick.

It might just be me, but the term 'weird' sounds a bit like a negative judgement. I prefer 'wonderful' - but hey, there's another judgement! Perhaps everybody just 'is', and that, just as they are - warts and all - by dint of just 'being' they are acceptable and loveable.

Thank you Nick for a lovely sentiment and yet more inspiration.

28/3/2013 11:35:10 pm

Hi Martine and thanks for the note. I quite like 'weird' because, for me, it captures things like uniqueness, quirkyness, diversity, creativity. Wonderful works for me too. :) It's about simply being who we are. Your comment about being acceptable reminded me of some thoughts I jotted down recently in a blog about facades: http://www.nick-wright.com/1/post/2013/03/-faades.html#comments. Would be interested to hear what you think! With best wishes and thanks for the encouraging feedback. Nick

Ceferino Jr. Dulay CPT

27/3/2013 02:58:53 am

I guess weirdness is dependent on one's own perception of what is said or done. But when you look more closely into it, you will find some logic although in some extreme cases, it's difficult to get that far. When I was managing R&D and even Technical Services, I would find ideas that would immediately be tagged as weird by the group. But after explanation and discussion, we find merit in many of these ideas. I guess "weirdness" is seen when the idea seem to be out of the ordinary. It could actually be the beginning of a new approach, a new perspective at analyzing something or simply just a new out-of-the-ordinary idea.

28/3/2013 11:45:00 pm

Hi Ceferino and thanks for such an inspiring response. I loved your account from R&D where an idea initially tagged as 'weird' could, when explored, actually turn out to be the beginning of something new. It reminded me of some research I heard on a course on 'psychology of creativity and innovation' where the tutor mentioned a correlation between those organisations known for greatest creativity and innovation and the degree of diversity in their top teams. It's as if, consciously or subconsciously, they have embraced 'weirdness' and difference and capitalised on its merits. With best wishes. Nick

Maria Laura Ferreyra

27/3/2013 06:36:57 am

I agree with Richard. I believe that people are not weird, that they are unique. And the source of uniqueness is the integrated "sum" of cultural fragments, experiences, ideas, feelings and values that each one of us has collected since we were born.
I work in a multicultural organization. Everyday we become more aware of differences. The challenge for us is not to discover weirdness, but to value the complementarity of uniqueness as we go along "doing business as usual". The first times people have intercultural or multicultural encounters at work they tend to believe that "the other side" is stupid, that they are blind (because they can not see what "everybody can see") etc.It takes lots of interaction time, courage and good will to value the difference at the place where you earn a living.
I know that it was fun to make the trip to weirdness that Nick mentions. But I also think that it might backfire in the future because it fits with a well established schema "I am all right. Those who are not like me are weird".

28/3/2013 11:58:26 pm

Hi Maria and thanks for such a thoughtful response. I was very interested to hear of your experiences of working in a multicultural organisation and would be very interested to hear more about how you have learned to help people navigate those environments.

In my experience of working in such organisations, diversity presents a real opportunity for creativity and innovation but people, teams and organisations often struggle to capitalise on it. Difference often creates polarities and tensions and needs skilful facilitation to recognise and work with its positive potential.

I've found this when working with people and teams from different professional disciplines too, each with their own beliefs, values, constructs, ways of working etc. My coaching work often involves helping people grow in awareness of their own constructs and preferences in order to acknowledge them for what they are.

With thanks again and best wishes. Nick

Ken Ludwig

27/3/2013 07:51:42 am

The world is richer for the fool on the hill...

29/3/2013 12:02:04 am

Hi Ken and well said. I had Beatles songs stuck in my head all day after reading that! ;) With best wishes. Nick

Rhonda Strehlow

28/3/2013 07:06:09 am

This is the best article I have read in a long time. It is refreshing. It is affirming. It is daring. Thank you for reminding us of the intrinsic value of each person, what they bring to an organization and how that freed individual brings synergy to the whole. We have gone through a long period where organizational trust and respect have disappeared; this celebration of wierdness will help bring them back. Can't you just hear some leaders saying, "But it will lead to anarchy"? Bring it on! It is time for change.

28/3/2013 11:29:56 pm

Everyone needs to read this blog. Employees are ready for this kind of affirmation.

29/3/2013 12:09:30 am

Hi Rhonda and thanks for such incredibly encouraging feedback. :) I loved your comment about 'how the freed individual brings synergy to the whole' and your emphasis on a 'celebration of weirdness'. I can understand the comment you mentioned about leaders' concerns, especially if they operate in a conventional command and control paradigm. My impression is that e.g. postmodern influences are eroding that outlook and approach in some cultures and it will be interesting and exciting to see what alternatives emerge. With best wishes. Nick

Patty Hendrickson link

28/3/2013 09:47:24 am

What a delightful read! Thanks for sharing an important reminder of the beauty of inclusiveness. How refreshing for individuals to share who they really are and not feel guarded. Bravo!

29/3/2013 12:21:40 pm

Thanks Patty. :) Yes, it feels special, liberating and empowering when people can truly be themselves and contribute their best out of who they are. With best wishes. Nick

Sven De Weerdt

29/3/2013 12:19:27 pm

I see two possible roads to take:
(1) discover the weirdness in ourself that we tend to condemn in others (Jungian); "what do I experience as weird in others?" "how can I honor/respect/love this same weirdness in me?"
(2) dis-cover one's own weirdness by noticing the covers of habitual, normative normality that cover up our unique weirdness; "what's the normal way? how do we do it normally?" - can we see the irony and laugh about it - let's exagerate it! - etc...

And here some Belgian chocolate : - )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1DZ3vx-TXE

29/3/2013 12:31:46 pm

Hi Sven and thanks for the inspiring response. I liked your description of the two roads to take. The first reminded me of projection, the tendency perhaps to see characteristics in others that appear weird to use because we deny them in ourselves. I also liked your use of the word 'dis-cover' to explore our own weirdness, to learn to laugh at it and to practise exaggerating it. Could be fun! :) Thanks too for the link to the song - what a great title! ;) With best wishes. Nick

David Stephenson

29/3/2013 03:45:34 pm

There is such a thing as the "weirdness index" (yes, there's an OD model for everything!). If you are similar (in behaviour, norms, values etc.) to the system/organisation you are in then you have a low weirdness index. If you are very different from the system you find yourself in then you have a high index. Your weirdness is relative to the system you are in. If your weirdness index is too high then your face doesn't fit, your seen as a maverick (at best) or loose canon (at worst) and eventually you bounce out of the organisation. However, as mentioned by people already in this discussion, people tend to normalise, to recruit in their own image etc. which over time limits our agility, diversity and ultimately our ability to adapt and innovate. So, increasingly nowadays for organisations to survive and thrive they must increase diversity, they must live with increased weirdness! As a change agent I've often found its about balance....the need to have enough weirdness to challenge the system (change it) but not so weird that the barriers come up or you get bounced out.

29/3/2013 03:53:54 pm

Hi David and thanks for the note. I love the idea of a weirdness index. Wouldn't it be great to have a WQ alongside IQ, EQ, SQ etc? ;) It sounds like the weirdness index aims to identify the degree of potential compatibility or fit between an individual and an organisation.

It makes me wonder if different types of organisation or role need different degrees of diversity or uniformity to be effective, or at different stages of their lifecycle. For instance, at ideas generating stages, divergence is great, whereas at implementation stages convergence may be needed.

I agree with the tension you described in your final comment. How to have sufficient weirdness to enable creativity and innovation by perceiving differently and challenging the status quo whilst not having so much weirdness in that context to evoke defensive/rejective routines.

Thanks for sharing such interesting thoughts. With best wishes. Nick

Martine Young

3/4/2013 06:47:41 am

For the geeks amongst us, this Weirdness Index comes from Jonno Hanafin (Organization Development Network, Seasonings, Vol. 6, 2009) who calls it the 'Perceived Weirdness Index' (PWI). Google it, it's interesting. It's in reference to being a change agent & how likely you are to be accepted into a culture depending on your PWI.

Thank goodness for weirdness I say!!

3/4/2013 06:49:08 am

Hi Martine and many thanks for sharing the reference. I'll definitely check it out...sounds fascinating! :) With best wishes. Nick

Rachel Menary BA (Hons)

31/3/2013 12:14:32 am

Hi Nick. The most innovative teams I have ever worked with and for have always been those that fully embrace each individuals unique qualities, skills and attitudes. It a pity so many companies embrace diversity but only think as far as culture, gender, race or religion. By going further and really tapping into each persons weirdness there is a whole world of unexplored talent out there. Bring on the weird!

31/3/2013 12:22:05 am

Hi Rachel and thanks for the inspiring response. I agree that organisations sometimes think of diversity in terms of the broad constructs you listed and often simply mean by it, 'we will not discriminate or treat someone less favourably on the grounds of...' It's an important baseline but hardly begins to capture the benefits that diverse individual and groups can bring.

I loved your comment, 'by going further and really tapping into each persons weirdness there is a whole world of unexplored talent out there'. Perhaps there's a development need and opportunity...how to enable leaders and organisations to capitalise on the positive benefits of diversity at all its levels, along with how to address some of the more difficult challenges it can bring.

I agree with you...bring on the weird! With best wishes...and happy Easter! :) Nick

Robin Cook

1/4/2013 01:21:20 pm

Two companies we visited with the Innovation University Fellowship Program encouraged employees to personalize their workspaces, no matter how idiosyncratic. They were pretty amazing, & triggered all sorts of creativity & innovation.

One of those brought in a photographer 2X/year to set up photo shoots with everyone. Employees were encouraged to have the photo represent something important to them outside of work. Those photos went on their office or cubical name plaques.

1/4/2013 01:27:05 pm

Hi Robin and thanks for sharing such inspiring and creative ideas - I love it! :) What a great way to humanise a workplace and to raise awareness of people as who they really are, not just the flat, two dimensional picture that formal job descriptions, roles etc. can sometimes convey. Thank you again. With best wishes. Nick

Georganne Oldham

2/4/2013 02:06:56 am

Nick, this is one of the most inspired ideas for team development I have seen in a very long time! Thanks for sharing it! I am making plans as we speak to frame my next team building with a "weird" twist!

2/4/2013 02:10:32 am

Hi Georganne and thanks for the note. What incredibly encouraging feedback! :) I would love to hear more about how your frame your team building with a weird twist and what happens when you do it. With best wishes. Nick

Nick Heap

3/4/2013 06:38:18 am

Here is a very simple way to improve multicultural awareness and mutual respect. Have the people in your multicultural team write, individually, on a flip chart "The strengths of my country or culture" and "The things we could do better". Then have people look at each other's charts. We did this with teams of people from across Europe, including Eastern Europe and Russia. It was very powerful, people learned that their differences could be used positively. For example, people from France tend to enjoy intellectual argument but don't fall out if they disagree. If there is something really tricky to think through have them lead it! There's a bit more here http://www.nickheap.co.uk/articles.asp?ART_ID=320

3/4/2013 06:45:19 am

Hi Nick and thanks for posting such an interesting and useful exercise and the link to your blog. It reminded me of appreciative inquiry, exploring positives and their potential contribution to the group as a whole. I guess one of the challenges is that different cultures value different things so that something regarded as a strength (e.g. speaking opinions openly in a group) in one culture could be regarded as a weakness in another. This type of activity could help raise those differences to the surface and, thereby, provide opportunity to explore underlying values too. With thanks for sharing, and best wishes. Nick

3/4/2013 09:56:05 am

I think that we all have a unique talent and purpose. When we are really motoring, and in our flame, we do things that other people just can't do as well and we thoroughly enjoy it. They don't understand how we do it and it certainly looks "weird". Maybe everybody is "weird" in they're unique way? Organisations try and fit people into roles and insist they do them in a standard way. We may end up doing things that aren't really "us" and we don't love doing. We add less value than we could and get frustrated.

It doesn't have to be this way. An organisation could help it's people discover their unique talent. It could fit the work that needs doing around the talents of it's people. Then everybody would be doing what they love and are good at. Just imagine the energy that would flow!

You can discover what your talent and purpose is quite quickly. You look back at times of your life when you have been your most fulfilled, think about what you were doing and come up with a simple phrase that captures it. It's called among other things your "Core Process". Mine's "Creating Awareness". There is much more about it here http://www.nickheap.co.uk/articles_by_cat.asp?ART_CAT_ID=43 including full instructions how to do it. It's all free and open source.

If this intrigues you, there will be a participative conference to explore all aspects of Core Process near London on June 13. You can find out more at www.coreprocesslife.com.

3/4/2013 10:02:59 am

Hi Nick and thanks for the comments. I've sometimes used similar talent or core process-type questions with people, especially during career coaching, e.g. what makes you feel alive, what are you good at, what do you find easy to learn (and, conversely, what do you find life-draining, what are you not good at, what do you find hard to learn). I did a similar core process activity some years ago now at a Waverley Learning retreat. Mine was 'developing others'. With thanks again and best wishes. Nick

3/4/2013 07:03:16 am

Thanks to Nick Heap...

So You Want to be a Change Agent -- Are You Weird Enough?

http://www.industryweek.com/companies-amp-executives/so-you-want-be-change-agent-are-you-weird-enough

3/4/2013 07:08:43 am

Hi Terrence and thanks for sharing the link. I liked the notion of walking a 'weirdness tightrope' in the article and the writer's reference to Hanafin's Perceived Weirdness Index (PWI) that, 'if you are not weird enough you just get absorbed into the culture. You then are an ineffective change agent because you do not stimulate the organization enough. On the other hand, if you are too weird you are not credible and are rejected by the culture.' Good stuff! With best wishes. Nick

3/4/2013 11:41:05 am

Things can be both a strength and a weakness in the same culture. Anything that is maximized, will probably turn the other way around. A strength that is maximized will become a weakness and a weakness that is maximized may eventually become a strength or a source of competitive advantage. Strengths and weaknesses are both sides of the same coin. It is the job of strategists to make sure that the right side of the coin comes up in the decision making process

3/4/2013 11:43:46 am

Hi Maria and thanks for the note. I agree that strengths and weaknesses are often flip sides of the same coin. It reminded me of the notion of 'derailers' in Hogan psychmetrics. I loved your final comment: 'It is the job of strategists to make sure that the right side of the coin comes up in the decision making process.' Now therein lies an opportunity and a challenge. :) With best wishes. Nick

Trine Moore

4/4/2013 10:23:49 am

yes its time for gratitude based economics which cares more for being in life than logons logos and logics, cares about Logos Nomos and the aesthetics of being born to a planet which provides and distributes and cleanses far better than we , time to bow, not to institutions but to honour integrity and worship which celebrates the integrity of holism of creation.

nourish weird to the limit and beyond

4/4/2013 10:25:19 am

Hi Trine. I like that: 'nourish weird to the limit and beyond...' :) With best wishes. Nick

4/4/2013 10:48:31 am

Trine, that was beautifully said! Do you think that will happen in our life time? Currently the US does not seem to ascribe to gratitude based economics. What might cause a turnaround? How can the average worker foster that change?

Paula De Lucca

4/4/2013 09:01:51 pm

Thanks for sharing this, Nick! I felt my own energy increase as your story unfolded. All too often I observe attempts to dissect, then classify and tidily fit individuals into categories that apparently helps people justify why others are as they are. Ultimately this helps them "make sense of 'them'." Since the expansiveness of our differences is endless, rather than focus on labeling and classification, is it possible we'd be better off trying to declassify? Might this not ultimately elevate acceptance of differences and strengthen capabilities built on the collective value of individuals?

Classification tends to create in and out groups. Yet, the functionality of our society appears to be driven by a context in which perpetual classification to many would seem requisite. It would be interesting to see the impact of a Weird Wednesday initiative.

5/4/2013 01:13:47 am

Hi Paula and thanks for sharing such inspiring reflections. Your comments on 'attempts to dissect then classify and tidily fit individials into categories' reminded me of some reflections I wrote recently that may strike a chord for you: http://www.nick-wright.com/1/post/2013/03/leadership-as-a-relational-dynamic.html.

I really liked your comment, 'the expansiveness of our difference is endless' and your thought-provoking question, 'is it possible we'd be better off trying to declassify?' I wondered if you had come across Kenneth Gergen's or Vivien Burr's work on social constructionism that touches on similar issues?

I wrote a blog a while ago that connects with this idea: http://www.nick-wright.com/1/post/2011/02/social-constructionism-applied.html. I agree that 'classification tends to create in and out groups' and it can also severely limit out ability to see alternative possibilities that could be more useful, enriching or liberating.

I love the idea of a Weird Wednesday! :) With best wishes. Nick

8/4/2013 07:25:18 am

Just came across this quote and it seemed to fit this discussion.

"If you’re crazy enough to do what you love for a living then you’re bound to create a life that matters." - Herb Kelleher

Janet Sernack

9/4/2013 02:12:14 am

Great conversation, in my research on the intrinsic motivators, mindsets and behaviors of innovative and entrepreneurial leadership, I came across 3 factors that relate to what you call "weirdness":
- the whole nature of diversity, how we need to maximize it more effectively, especially in your example of the team retreat, not only about breaking paradigms, and disclosing more about self, but abut generating deep debates where everyone can contribute towards a more innovative outcome, thru the differences they bring, cultural and otherwise.
- the notion of deviance, another word I use for being a 'weirdo', is being a deviant, as all great ideas come from someone who is weird enough to deviate from the norm. This requires us to develop a special set of what I call generative inquiry skills, so that you can bring out the best of what deviants have to offer to facilitate innovative solutions.
- the nature of disruption, as weirdo's are usually disruptive, and to create the space for innovation to occur, we need to be intentionally disruptive.
I have found that these 3 factors are often perceived as negative, which suggests a whole new approach to the need for more useful mindsets, behaviors and skills around cultivating weirdness as a resource for innovation.

G9G link

28/6/2014 10:45:05 am

I will share what I know in the ability for people to understand. Thanks for sharing

Gail Johnston link

18/6/2015 05:14:17 pm

Hello Nick,
I just thought I'd let you know that I did a search on "creativity" and your writing came up, so I'm reading your posts and particularly like the "everybody's weird" approach :) I'm a Christian and "creative" and just launched a Kickstarter campaign to encourage creativity in others. I hope the project honors God, although I have just a light mention of Him as the Creator in the book as it now stands. Please check out the campaign and let me know if you'd like to receive a copy of the pdf. It would be great to get a brief review statement from you if it interests you. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/696344523/vision-creative-cues-from-the-cat Thanks! Gail