In the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest begins jogging across the country.  Once the media notices they begin making conjectures about why he's doing it.  What must his deeper meaning be?   For Forrest, running had no deeper meaning; it had just become a routine.
  
Sometimes we can be like the character of Forrest, running around in our lives without connecting our actions to a deeper purpose.  We're running because we're running. Ever feel that way?   That doesn't energize, doesn't provide lift. Remember the concept of lift - accelerated flow of air over a curved wing?  The greatest source of lift for one's work and life comes with connection of our actions to deeper meaning.  
  
This is more than just working toward praise, pay raises or promotions.  It's about re-connecting our actions with our values, spirit and dreams.  Once we can look past the daily routines in front of our eyes and remember what motivated us originally, we'll feel a lightness and a new energy from the lift this deeper meaning gives us.

On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright were credited with the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight.  A century later, we all know now that planes fly due to lift. Increased air speed over top of the curved wing lowers the pressure and the plane rises.  Defying logic, at takeoff a 747-400 can carry 450 tons of weight effortlessly into the thin air.
 
Great leaders provide lift to their teams in much the same way.  They increase the airspeed (clarity, vision, coordination, confidence) over a curved wing (the team's apparent and latent capabilities) to lift the team to unexpected, and perhaps unforseen heights.  
 
In the weeks ahead we'll explore lift in a deeper way.   Lift isn't about new skills or quick tips.  It isn't about haranging or charisma.  It is about how you show up as a leader.  

Children are funny.  They want to eat when hungry, sleep when tired, seek help when hurting, and laugh recklessly when amused.  Children live at extremes.

As we mature we learn to temper these extremes, but most of us go too far.  We no longer fully engage in our world; we retreat inward.  We don't seek to satisfy our needs such as rest or aid or anything else that renews us.  

To be Fully Engaged and Renewing is the final stage of Being.  It is one of self-awareness and humility that we seem to mistake for weakness.  Humility is simply a sober view of yourself, both strengths and needs.  Choosing to fully engage and renew may seem outside your comfort zone, extreme even, but it is essential to realizing our authentic, balanced selves.  

Have you ever injured your hand or foot or anywhere that affected your natural activity?  

If so, you know how long it can take to adjust.  You may have also noticed how easily we take for granted things like using all our fingers, walking without pain or seeing out of both eyes.  Without the usual full expression of your body even simple acts can seem difficult.  

Unfortunately, many of us work and live without fully expressing our mental and emotional abilities. Because of some wound, pain or fear we avoid certain areas and favor others.  Our habits of daily behavior may seem natural but most of us struggle to achieve our Fully Expressed Genius.  

For example, using only our intellect instead of including our emotional reasoning will make our mind over-worked and our heart weakened. When using our whole selves while living and working we find that everything, simple or complex, seems much easier.  

Q: What difference would a healthy dose of Generative Thinking make possible for you and your team?

Big money has been made over the last few decades in the American business world in a surprising manner: Bootlegging.
 
Bootlegging originally started in the 1920s during prohibition.  No longer allowed to buy alcohol people started experimenting and making their own.  It was off-the-grid and illegal but people made plenty of money and the cocktail culture was born.  
 
Some of today's most successful products are the result of sanctioned bootlegging in business.  That means team members are allowed to experiment with methods, products and new thinking outside their traditional process.  It requires risk, guts, and trust.  However, products like Post-It Notes, Scotch Tape, and Kevlar would never have been created otherwise. 
 
Business bootlegging is just one example of Generative Thinking.  Most of us accustomed to incremental thinking might find the generative version unsettling.  New ideas always are.  Incremental thinking may inch us forward but Generative Thinking will help us break though by leaps and bounds.  

Years ago a small group of designers and engineers thought everyone should have their own loom to make their own fabric.

Most of their colleagues insisted that even if they could make it, nobody would want one.  Looms are machines for big business, not individuals.  Nevertheless, this small affiliation of creators kept making prototypes until people started actually buying them.  Eventually most of America had one.

Of course, all this is true except for the loom part. Instead of the loom the personal computer is the real invention.  But, the struggle was the same, and the critics weren't wrong.  There was no market for a home-based computer.

Gates, Jobs, and others who created the personal computer market had what we call a Receptive Worldview.  Where most saw no market they saw opportunity; where most saw walls they saw break through.

Having a Receptive Worldview means releasing your judgments and limits on situations and people.  It feels risky, but without it we may never really break though.

Q: How could appreciating other's internal dialogue, whatever fragments they allow you to see, cause you to be more mindfully present with them?

Have you ever met people who say whatever comes to their mind?  There are no secrets, no internal monologue, no filter.  Occasionally entertaining and at times a bit much.  

Most of us think plenty of things we never say.  If you could hear the internal thoughts of peers, clients, family and friends it might change the way you view and behave with them.  

Having a mindful presence with others includes being aware that they too have unspoken motivations, fears, and goals. Approaching them from a point of discernment rather than judgment gives us more opportunity for understanding, a foundation of wisdom.

In the old days of the circus, trainers had a way of conditioning elephants to stay put that involved nothing more than a thin rope. A rope tied to nothing.

When the elephants were babies, their trainers would tie one of their legs to a heavy post. Being so small this worked to keep them in place. Eventually, the elephants became conditioned to knowing they could not move with the rope around their leg.

As the elephants grew, their conditioning remained. With a rope around their leg the elephants thought they were immobilized, even if they were tied to nothing. These powerful animals no longer had a mindful presence of their true strength and freedom.

As people, we often fall into similar conditioning. We react and limit ourselves out of fear, resignation, habit, and close-mindedness. However, if we create an accurate awareness about our true situation, we may find that we're not tethered to those limits. Simply being mindfully present will help us break through.

Q: What could you benefit from getting your hands on?

Every great doctor should be skilled with their hands. Certainly, surgeons spend plenty of time diagnosing, strategizing, and researching the best course of treatment. But, if surgery is required they'll have to rely on the skill of their hands too.

Depending on their professional position, some doctors move more towards decision-making than actual patient interaction.  But does this mean they are hands-off with their cases?  Even if they aren't to hold a scalpel, great doctors are hands-on with their cases.  They may have a team supporting them but their hands will know the work.

As leaders we should work with the four elements of the Head, Heart, Hands, and Spirit.  While it's good not to micromanage, to be hands-off can be detrimental.  Getting in and doing work with our teams in a hands-on way can help connect our work with the Spirit of why we do it.

Q: Are your Outer Self and Inner Self aware of each other?

What was your best conversation last week?  Ok, what was your most peaceful moment?
 
Like most people you may have trouble answering one or both questions.  Many of us struggle living on one side of a wall between our Inner World and our Outer World.  Our Inner World includes things like our worldview, our intellect and generally a mindful presence.  The Outer world is everything from our relationships to our work.  
 
Disconnecting from either will keep us from balance and our true potential.  Busyness: living from moment to moment focused on output only may seem productive but isn't purposeful.  On the other hand, living in our own heads, never connecting our ideas, our genius to the activity of our lives and work is all purpose with no production.  Our true potential means breaking through this wall.