Not every tricky situation we face will lead us to a world-changing innovation like penicillin, Amazon, or Uber.
But having an attitude that treats all problems as if they contain opportunities will always bring us five important benefits:
- A feeling of inspiration and emotional engagement:
Looking for opportunities is more exciting and more inspiring than fixing problems. It builds emotional engagement and morale, which improves productivity and results.
As Napoleon believed, “A leader is a dealer in hope.” Simply looking for the opportunities creates that hope.
. - Deeper understanding:
Searching for the opportunities in a situation forces us to let go of our assumptions about that situation and search for deeper understanding. This deeper understanding will be useful, no matter which direction we decide to move forward in.
. - Greater durability and impact:
When John Cleese was writing sketches with the Monty Python team, his colleagues would often stop when they got to the first punchline. Cleese would keep working until he found the second, third, or even fifth level of comedy. This was harder work and took longer. But the results he created were stronger, funnier, and longer lasting.
If you want to generate outcomes that are more remarkable, last longer, or connect at a deeper level than your competitors, learn to look for the ten types of opportunities that lie beyond the obvious solution and the quick fix.
. - More choice, more control, and more determination:
By choosing not just to see ‘problems’ but to seek the opportunities in a situation you retain more control over your destiny. Even if you eventually end up choosing the same path as you were going to before, you have now made it your deliberate choice, from a wider range of possibilities, rather than just something you were forced into. This puts you back in control.
Even if the way forward isn’t ideal, the fact that you have looked for the opportunities means you know it is the best available option. That will add vigour and determination to your actions.
. - Antifragility:
Looking for the opportunities in a situation is another step to making us and our organisations what Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls ‘antifragile’.
Objects, people, and organisations that break under stress we call ‘fragile’. Objects, people, and organisations that survive under stress we call ‘robust’, ‘strong, or ‘resilient’. And objects, people, and organisations that can actually use stress to become stronger and more valuable, Taleb calls ‘antifragile’.
The first step to becoming antifragile is to look for the opportunities in the situation.
Together, these five ideas lie at the heart of Inner Leadership: generating more inspiration, building deeper understanding, staying in control, and finding better ways forward that will last longer. Ultimately, it’s about learning to use any situation to make ourselves and our organisations antifragile: able to use change to become stronger and more valuable.
And all this begins in the moment when you decide to look for the opportunities in a crisis.
Would any of these benefits be useful to you right now? Have you looked for the opportunities that exist in the difficulties you currently face?
Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.
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Photo By Eduardo Unda-Sanzana via StockPholio.net