Members Connecting Together

OCTOBER 14, 2022 BY PETER DAVIS
As Shared by: Bright Orange Thread

Be Like Water
Our guest expert today is Peter Davis. Peter is an expert in helping leaders live up to their potential. Bio.

Water, when faced with an obstacle, changes direction. 
When faced with circumstances beyond its control, like heat or cold, water changes form to steam or ice. Water is both yielding and unstoppable.
Water is life. Life is unfair and unpredictable. 
Water is always changing itself or what it encounters. 
Water has the power to change the shape of Earth. It can be a destructive force or a gentle healer. 
Water is a source of energy and a mode of transportation. 
Water can be inspirational, mathematical, physical, mysterious, multi-dimensional, and metaphorical. 

How can an organization or leader behave like water?

With the “be like water” framework, when plans go wrong, people will change and adapt…like water. 
The framework will give your organization an efficient and productive behavioral model. 
Their basic elements will remain the same. It is their form and direction that will change.

1) Discover your basic “elements.” 
Where people are concerned, the basic elements are themes, a nucleus of capabilities, talents, experiences, and characteristics. Here lies the real dynamics of power.
While water can be many things, at its core, water is H20. Whether liquid, vapor, or ice, the fact of water is constant. Context dictates form.

What is irreducible?  What is unique and most relevant about your company?

2) Explain your purpose. 
Is it to sell cars or keep people safe? Is it to sell tickets or make people happy? Is joining a chamber a business expense or a supportive professional community?
Everything in nature has its purpose.
As a liquid, water bends and carves its way through the landscape, becoming vapor or solid depending on circumstances. 
Without a higher purpose, you will not have the criteria for deciding how to adapt (bend or carve). Making decisions aligned with your purpose teaches you creativity (changing form).

What is your purpose, and why does that matter?

3) Practice the art of re-framing. 
Keep the facts of the matter (water is always H2O) and change the context or the meaning attributed to the situation and, therefore, its consequences.
Water doesn’t resist harmonious power. Water joins with the process as it unfolds.

What effect has the pandemic had on your business? Did you learn anything new about yourself and what is possible?

Tackle Obstacles Like Water
Successful companies today do not sell products and services so much as they sell values and their worldview. 

Dealing with obstacles is how businessmen and women express themselves…to yield, adapt or change direction, and move unstoppably forward. 
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Solve problems like water does.

Guest Author: Peter Davis

Peter Davis helps people live up to their potential as leaders and difference-makers. Helping difference-makers connect with and inspire other people is how Peter fulfills his mission.
Peter has twenty-five years of business development experience. He has 15 years of leading branding engagements and interactive workshops around brand building, business storytelling, and how to create powerful pitches.
Learn more at Herosquestconsulting.com.