Maybe ‘un-gifting’ sounds a bit strange as we enter the season of gifting. Yet it might be just what we need.
From personal experience, we tend to hold on to things too long. Ideas, ways of working, our expertise, career milestones. They give identity. At times they’re lifebelts. But what if these tethers have got a bit tight? Become restrictions?
We see this playing out in the rigid adherence to political ideology. In organisations it shows up in single-lens viewing of a problem (the marketing, HR, operations, finance, production, customer service, et al, lenses). The bigger picture and greater opportunity is blocked or lost through holding on.
We share this problem. We can also share the fix in service of a world in flux that could go one way, or another, or another, or another. Direction and destination are up for grabs.
Yet if we want a better world (of course we do) we need to clear our view and ‘operating system’ of its limitations. Shedding attachments to allow for a higher neutrality from which we can contribute differently. This doesn’t mean we don’t care. It allows expansion of that caring, embracing a greater good.
In doing so we’ll be experiencing the bigger picture, the system, coming into greater clarity. Setting our aspirations and intentions higher. Welcoming novel thinking. Daring to experiment. Seeking and living true collaboration.
As we pause for the festive season, or at least prepare for a different type of daily mayhem (depending on how you celebrate) a bit of reflection on the things we might need to let go might be useful.
Or, to put it another way – what would you ‘un-gift’ yourself?