Make the most of every opportunity.
That might be one of the most over-used but under-defined pieces of advice we’ve all heard throughout our lives.
Of course, yes, make the most of every opportunity. Now, bring me some opportunities so I can make the most of them. I’m waiting …
Or, maybe we hear that advice and just jump on the first opportunity that comes our way. The phrase says “every” opportunity, so why not? If we treat opportunity as a first-come-first-served situation, we could (and often do) spend months or years trying to cultivate an opportunity simply because we saw that one first.
This is the second in a series of five articles about resilience and readiness for reinvention, and how we can pursue them at the levels of the individual, the team, the operating unit, the organization and the industry. Article one introduced four questions to foster individual resilience. This article will explore four skills necessary for managing opportunity – as a way to promote team resilience.
Why focus on teams? Because even if we had an organization filled with resilient individuals, that’s still not enough. Individuals need to be surrounded by people who have different strengths and varying perspectives in order to achieve at fullest capacity. But working with people who think differently than we do is not always easy.
That’s why the next step in our journey to resilience is to develop skills for functioning better as a team.
This isn’t just about how to get along, because resilience is not just about withstanding challenges. It’s about being nimble enough to adapt to meet those challenges. That’s why in this series it’s coupled with reinvention.
To be ready to reinvent, we need to learn more about opportunity: how to spot it, how to choose which ones are worth our time and energy, how to cultivate those particular opportunities to make them grow, and the value of sharing opportunity with others.
Arthur Valdez, executive vice president of global supply and customer solutions for Starbucks, will be speaking at the Leadership in the Age of Personalization Executive Summit on October 17. Valdez’s session, titled “Leveraging Team Diversity: The Key to Building Cohesive and Resilient Organizations,” will shed light on the critical role of diversity within teams in achieving resilience and preparing for reinvention.
With more than 30 years of leadership experience in operational supply chain and logistics, Valdez emphasizes the significance of fostering diverse teams that can collaborate effectively and seize opportunities for growth. “To be resilient and ready to reinvent means we have to have teams filled with people who can see opportunities and work together to make the most of them,” said Valdez. “Breaking that down into actionable steps and identifiable skills is a great way to make our teams more resilient.”
How Diversity of Thought Leads to Resilience in the Workplace
We can’t just be resilient alone. We need to understand how to be resilient and ready for reinvention together.
Enter another overused and under-defined phrase we’ve all heard: diversity of thought. We all know we wouldn’t get far if we only worked with people who think the same way we do and have the same ideas. That’s not resilient.
So, we need to get better at understanding and seizing the right opportunities. And we need to maximize the variety of perspectives on our teams so we’re exposed to the most (and the most relevant) opportunities possible.
Here are the four skills of opportunity management. We should all strive for a balance among these skills, but we also need to appreciate where the various members of our team excel and balance how the team functions accordingly.
- Broadened Observation: seeing opportunities with circular vision. Broadened observation emphasizes looking beyond the obvious and embracing different perspectives. This skill encourages the refinement of ideas, anticipating the unexpected, promoting a resilient mindset that sees the glass half full rather than empty during times of volatility. This skill breaks us free from linear thinking to a more holistic view of opportunities.
- Extensive Innovation: sowing entrepreneurial seeds. Extensive innovation underscores the importance of exploration, getting your hands dirty and deploying a bold and consistent effort in achieving goals. This skill promotes the ability to navigate endless possibilities with a pioneering attitude that fosters personal growth and resilience to overcome challenges.
- Strategic Focus: growing seeds of greatest potential. Strategic focus is about identifying and prioritizing opportunities of greatest potential. This skill enhances resilience because you know how to maximize the utilization of resources toward areas most likely to yield positive outcomes, while aligning team efforts toward meaningful objectives in pursuit of momentum.
- Generous Purpose: sharing the harvest. Generous purpose is about being driven to positively impact others. This skill fosters trust, collaboration and empathy. It strengthens team resilience by creating a culture of values and respect through a shared mission. Sharing the harvest is about offering unsolicited feedback that encourages transparency to multiply opportunities and the sustainability of outcomes.
Promoting a culture of diversity of thought transcends hierarchical boundaries and invites a healthy tension where ideas are not only challenged but also refined and improved. This process is about creating a dynamic setting where ideas are continuously tested and explored to discover optimal solutions.
In the next article of the series, we’ll expand our view to address resilience at the level of operating unit – where multiple teams need to function well together.
If you’re interested in exploring these topics in even more detail, consider attending the 5th annual Leadership in the Age of Personalization Summit. Go here to register to attend online.
Read the full article here
