Do you notice enough?

You may be familiar with the increasing number of venues and artists who are “banning” the audience having mobile phones during performances. It’s not so much the “phone” functionality they object to, it’s the camera. People failing to immerse themselves in the performance and instead focussed (literally) on capturing video or photos, instead of being in the moment and fully experiencing the live performance.

Then there’s the mindfulness movement, encouraging such things as not watching TV while eating a meal. The theory being that you’re really able to enjoy the flavour and texture of the food when that’s the prime focus.

Several meditation techniques require the intense study of an otherwise ordinary object. If you have never tried the meditative method of eating a raisin, I thoroughly recommend it. It will change your perception of the humble fruit forever. You truly experience the texture, the smell and eventually the flavour.

Those are just three examples of noticing the world around us.

Taking more notice of what's happening in your work environment can also be a very effective tool for personal and team development.

Here are a couple of examples;

In a meeting, whether in-room or online, what do you notice about the other people? You might immediately think about body language signals, but they are easily mis-interpreted. I'm thinking about more subtle things. For example, we all tend to have our own particular vocabularies. Words which we use more than others, idiosyncratic phrases which we wear almost like a favourite shirt. Once you've noticed them, you can then start to notice if something changes over time. Is that person's language becoming less upbeat over time, is their once enthusiastic language now dulled like a blunt knife? And once you've noticed that, you can then start to consider what (if anything) you might do with what you've noticed. Perhaps a gentle check-in at a natural point over the coming days. "How are things?" will often be met with "oh fine, thanks" no matter what the reality, so some gentle second-level questions might be in order. "What's top of your to-do list these days" can be an open way to explore what's going on for someone in a fairly neutral way.

Then there's you. What do you notice about how you are in work compared to, say, a year ago. This is not about what you do, it's not about content. It's about the way in which your entire world of work interacts with you and how you in turn interact with your work environment. Do you notice changes and if so, what's different? Is that a change for the better, or now you come to notice it do you want things to be different? How are others interacting with you? Do things now wind you up which never used to? Do you have the same spark you used to? What's getting you out of bed on a workday morning? Have the "Sunday scaries" started/got worse/got better? How's the work-life balance?

Until you're able to take time to notice what's going on, you'll not be able to do something about it. As John Whitmore, the originator of the GROW coaching model, once famously said "I am able to control only that which I'm aware of. That which I'm unaware of controls me."