Performance Breakthrough: A Radical Approach to Success at Work by Cathy Rose Salit

Author:Cathy Rose Salit
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Economics / Motivational, Economics / Careers / General, Business &#38
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2016-04-11T14:00:00+00:00

Tenet # 5: Delight in Curveballs

If you always know what’s going to happen next, you’re either bored, boring, or the Amazing Kreskin. Curveballs are a part of life, and the workplace is filled with them. They can be small, like being asked to speak in a meeting about something that wasn’t on the agenda. They can be huge, like when your debut product that was supposed to hit the shelves in April won’t be arriving until July. Or anywhere in between. Regardless of size, curveballs are a regular part of our days. And left to our own devices, we tend to fear them, get rattled, and try to run for the hills when they arrive.

But improvisers love curveballs (and lest we forget, you are an improviser). Their very unexpectedness raises your game. You have to listen harder and use more creativity and imagination in your responses. Curveballs change the trajectory of a scene and lead you to places you hadn’t planned to go. Getting better at fielding them makes you more resilient and effective.

And so, curveballs are really just offers—small offers or big fat juicy offers—that you didn’t see coming. You can delight in them. Be creative with them. Wildly, brilliantly creative? Maybe. But more often, a bit more mundane. Sort of like, “Oh! What happens next?” and you’re one of the people who get to create an answer to that question.

Delight in Curveballs in Action

In chapter 3 I introduced you to my old friend Jenna, a national organizer for an environmental organization. She was complaining to a bunch of friends and colleagues about how underappreciated she was at work, despite her tenure and accomplishments. We’d heard the same sad story many times before and were all more than a little bored by it. Jenna desperately needed something to get her out of her loop of negativity. Kishanda led the way. Instead of doing the usual I’m-so-sorry-this-is-happening-to-you script, she came out and told Jenna just what a piece of work she was. Curveball!

We have an exercise that helps our clients to play with curveballs. It goes like this: People get into pairs (Persons A and B) and face each other. Person A can see a screen or TV monitor; Person B can’t. Person A gets a topic to speak about to Person B (the latest reorganization at work, the first-quarter results, how to be more customer-focused, etc.). Soon after Person A starts talking, a random word or phrase appears on the screen (e.g., lawn mower). Now Person A has to incorporate this word—this curveball—into their monologue seamlessly, as if it were exactly what they would have said anyway. On the screen, the curveballs keep coming: “car trouble,” “Kim Kardashian,” “salt,” and so on, and Person A has to incorporate each one. It’s a real brain-stretcher, and people amaze themselves and one another with how creative and inventive they can be.

Dealing with curveballs in this way is like a muscle that starts out puny but is actually pretty easy to build.

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