Breaking Out of Old Habits to Unlock Leadership Potential

Every day, we connect the dots.​
Connecting the dots to our to-do lists.
Connecting the dots to get the work done.
The dots to solve the problems. The dots to success.

Today, connecting dots the same old way isn’t enough.

Doing the same things, just a little bit better, hoping it leads to less stress, fewer conflicts, and stronger results, a pipe dream.

We get stuck in assumptions:

“This is how we’ve always done it.” “This is just how work gets done here.” “This is how our organization is structured.”

[Side note: when HOW creeps in, it’s a dream killer. Instead, ask ‘What if' questions.]

When we take things at face value with our past experiences as a guide, we limit our potential.

A client of mine recently had her team try the 9-Dot Exercise at a company meeting. She wanted them to see that their way of doing business—doing things the way they always had—was holding them back from greater success.

That doing things only one way,

sticking with the old way,

being afraid to try a new way

Was keeping the company from winning more.

To do the 9-Dot Exercise, take out a sheet of paper and make three dots across and three dots down in a square, as done below.

Exercise Directions:

Join all nine dots by drawing no more than four straight lines without lifting your pen from the paper. The line must be continuous. You cannot lift your pen from the paper once you start drawing.

Stop here to try it before reading ahead.

If you’re like most people, you tried to solve the puzzle by keeping your lines inside the “box” formed by the dots. You followed the instructions as written, just like I did the first time I tried it.

Our instinct is to stay inside the framework of the nine dots. We think “inside the box.”

When I walked another client through this exercise, he struggled for a while before asking,

“Do we have to stay in the box?”

There is no rule in the instructions that says to stay in the box.

When you break out of that mental box and draw outside the dots, you open yourself to new solutions and possibilities that once seemed impossible.

Look for the unwritten rules to see things differently and unlock new potential.

• What rules are you following right now that no longer make sense?

• What expectations are you holding onto that don't serve your business?

• What are you doing simply because it’s always been done that way?

• What are the assumptions that once worked that are standing in the way of your success?

Our minds are wired to say “no” or cling to old habits.

But if we keep connecting the dots the same way, we’ll never experience breakthrough ideas.

Start thinking like a challenger.

-Challengers are curious.
-Challengers look for new angles.
-Challengers rewrite the rules.

Thinking outside the box starts with an open mind and asking,

“What if?”
With the answers to “What if?” ask, “Why not?”

As management guru Peter Drucker said,

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

Step outside the box and begin there.