A week ago, we took a day off and headed to Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. Kettle's Yard is the contemporary art museum of the University of Cambridge but it's so much more and, if you've not been, I'd highly recommend it and will be writing more about the insights it inspired in a future issue. However, one key thing I noticed was that, in order to get a clear view of the artworks, we found ourselves constantly stepping in two directions - backwards and forwards. 

This is also how I work with clients. Most of my clients - whether they're individuals, teams or organisations - come to me because they are stuck and need more clarity if they're going to move forward in significant ways. Sometimes they're clear that they've lost sight of the wood for the trees and they therefore need Big Picture Clarity.  That was certainly the case with a recent client - on the face of it, a world-class organisation but actually lacking a big picture vision and direction for the next five to ten years. Together, we were able to develop a strategy which is already yielding great results for them.

The foundational need for big picture clarity at work is why ONION begins with Outcomes - the opportunity to step back and think about the situation you're seeking to reach. It's why my clients engage me as a coach in the first place, to get another, broader, perspective on the challenges and opportunities which are facing them. It's why I encourage anyone who uses it to involve others in the Now and the Ideas layers of ONION. It's why some of the key sessions with my clients involve a bit of levity as they are able to step back and get some perspective on intense and complex situations at work. If you're going to get the clarity that enables you to move forward you need to step back.

However, our time at Kettle's Yard wasn't all about stepping back; sometimes to get a clearer sense of the work of art in front of us, we needed to step in and step forward and look at the detail in order to understand how it fitted into the whole. Clarity is not just about objectivity and theories, increased clarity happens as we act and move into the situation which is perplexing us, getting into the weeds and trying new approaches. 

That's why, although it starts with clarity around big picture Outcomes, ONION ends with Next Step Clarity - propelling you into taking action towards your desired Outcome. My clients always talk about the value they find in the space our work provides to experiment and try things out in real time at work. As we work together, it's so encouraging to see my clients - be they scale-up FinTechs, 200-year-old world-class organisations or dynamic individuals - step forward and try new things. As they do, they realise not only that deeper clarity leads to action but that action also begets more clarity. It's only as we step forward and try things that we get any idea what actually works. 

Just as we were constantly swapping between stepping back and stepping forward to get the clearest view of the artwork at Kettle's Yard, it's key to know when to step back (and get some perspective) and when to step forwards (and try things out) as you seek to get greater clarity at work. I love helping my clients successfully find and navigate that balance.

In the face of current and upcoming complexity and challenges in your work,  how can you both step back and step forward into clarity? Is there an issue or situation where you're doing too much of one (too much standing back and big picture ruminating and not enough getting in and doing) or the other (too in the thick of it and lacking much needed perspective)? Why not write down key ways you can start to do both in the coming weeks and then putting your ideas into practice? 

As always, let me know how it goes!