The Climate in Your Head: Brain Tornadoes or Blue Skies?

Tonight I decided I was just going to write a stream of thought.

No preparation here. Just seeing what comes out. Could be typos and lousy grammar but that's cool.

Lately I've been resonating with the idea of climate. I'm not talking about the actual climate, such as that in the photo to the right. (The cloud formations on the drive up to Barrie last Friday were pretty cool though).

Chartered Accountants?

This morning I was the kick off presenter for an audience of 60 Chartered Accountants (CAs). As part of my mission to empower quiet guys I have been actively looking for introverted professionals to engage with. I'm still not clear which quiet guys actually care about what I care about but I'm really interested in finding out!

I contacted the local chapter of the CA association, presented options for topics and was gladly invited to participate in their learning day today. The topic they chose was about the importance of building a climate for creativity and change.

What is climate?

The concept of 'climate' = the attitudes, behaviours and feelings that reflect what people experience everyday.

There are three levels of climate to be aware of: Individual psychological climate (the one in our heads), team climate and organizational climate. They are all interconnected within a workplace environment.

A creative climate (in a business context) is one that enables people to make new connections and generate ideas to satisfy the dreams, aspirations, hopes, wants, needs etc. of some group of people willing to pay for them.

In a recent study by IBM, 1,500 organizational leaders around the globe were interviewed. These leaders stated that the number one issue facing them today is increased complexity. And the number one competency  was creative leadership, the ability to thrive despite the ambiguity and uncertainty that is part of life as we know it today. I would suggest that creative leadership or creativity is something everyone can tap into, especially introverted men.

The key point in my presentation was:

If increased complexity demands increased creativity then we must understand how to enable creativity to flourish. One key answer is to become aware of and deliberately shape the climate in your head and workplace.

As I was preparing for the presentation it struck me deeply how important this message is. And I also become even more aware of the climate between my two ears.There are times when the doubt and fear swirls like a tornado, but then it is gone just as quickly. But I can feel the trail of debris it leaves. Yet in another flash the sky is blue and the sun is shining brightly. When it's like this I'm productive and want it to stay as long as possible.

Last night I stumbled upon an old journal I had written some notes in and low and behold the words below were written in it:

• Improving state of mind is the big competitive opportunity
  
• We all want relief of mental stress
  
• People seek trusted advisors because they relieve mental stress
  
• People want to know how you are going to make them feel better
  
• Improve the quality of life inside their heads
  
• Every transaction is about healing psychic wounds, not just buying a product or service
  
• We must understand the state of mind the consumer is after
  
• What do they want?
  
• How do you want them to feel? 

The words hit home for me. They reinforced the importance of this climate idea.

The bottom line is that I'm going to start focusing more deliberately on understanding the current climate in the heads of people I work with and live with. I'm also going to attempt to understand the state of mind that they are seeking. Of course I'll continue to notice the climate in my head and how it impacts my life at work and at home.

I hope you find this concept as empowering as I do.