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What’s ‘open space’ and how do you use it?

Guest post by: Kool Results

Article Overview: It’s the start of a new year, which, for many of us, means the start of a new school year. Are you one of those parents who hold your daughter’s hand as she crosses the road? Who walks into the classroom to put her bag on the peg? Who finds the teacher to explain why little Katie did not do her homework? Not a great look if little Katie is 14 years old! And yet some parents are not able to let go. They jump in to fix every problem a child has. Your child will be safe but is she learning anything about resilience?

What’s ‘open space’ and how do you use it?

Many managers or business owners fall into the trap of fixing the problem rather than empowering employees to address difficult issues themselves. The approach I prefer is one of educating staff to take responsibility for the problem. A good leader will promote independent thinking amongst staff. It's much better for job satisfaction, productivity and time management.

There are three questions you should ask when confronted by a member of staff with a problem: • what have they done so far

• what can they do to begin resolving the issue and

• what else can they do to avoid a recurrence of the issue

Brainstorm together -offer them the opportunity to find the answers themselves. They can explore avenues unfamiliar to them knowing they have your support and guidance. You create a safe environment where they feel able to experiment and make mistakes. When they arrive at a solution their confidence is increased. It's also a way to ensure their accountability.

There is a huge difference between telling them what to do and providing a chance for them to be creative. Effectively, you are offering them ‘open space' - a chance to use their intuition to identify a solution and to resolve the problem.

The more ‘open space' you create, the greater will be their successful responses to work dilemmas. As a leader, you need to encourage them to seize the initiative.

Remember back to school? The teachers from whom you learned the most were the ones who didn't rescue you when things went wrong, but who taught you to navigate your way through the stormy waters and unchartered territory.

Once you have created ‘open space' for your staff don't leave it there. You must be sure to follow up. As a leader who is showing the way, it's important to keep up to date with your performance reviews and appraisals as a way of measuring staff progress. You'll be able to gauge how much they have learned and how capable they are of putting it into practice. If a poor attitude does not improve over a fixed period, you may need to consider further training. Are there other indicators of their performance which you may have missed? Or could it be that your style of leadership needs addressing? Ultimately, it may be necessary to move them to a different role, or, in some cases, to recognise they may be better suited elsewhere.

A good leader and a good parent are people who teach well. A great leader and a great parent are people who encourage learning through mistakes.

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." Confucius.

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Article Tags: leadership, performance management



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The best time to open a new business - I agree. It depends on the business. However, in some cases there are ways around that if you allow yourself to open up to possibilities and get creative. For example, my husband and I are in the process of beginning a sport's store. We live in a touristy community with a lot of winter sports. There are summer sports here as well, but the winter appears to be the most lucrative. We planned on things coming together in order to take advantage of the winter sport's season, but our ideal lease space was held up by circumstances beyond our control. We are still not in. Lease space is minimal so we have some decisions to make. We could either delay everything until Fall or get very creative around our marketing for the warmer weather sports and start right away. We chose to open up to the possibility that there must be a way to succeed in the off season. Because we chose to think positively and look for solutions that fit what we want to do, all sorts of ideas started coming to us. We are now positive we have a plan that will succeed. So, the answer really depends on the business and your willingness to open up to new creative ideas around it.
Re: Hello from a San Diego-based marketer - Welcome Aaron! Whats the next stage for your business? Ben
Re: New, young entrepreneur - Congrats H20ismyLife! Do you have a website so we can see any of your work? Whats the next step for you?
Looking for Office Mates to join the Happy Worker space - Hey all, We're growing & getting more office space, thinking of taking on more than we can handle now (top floor of a building on Queen W & John St, beside CityTV building) and subletting space to other passionate types. If you know anyone who's in the market for creative office space & would be a good addition to our happy feng shui, appreciate it if you'd let them and/or me know. Thanks! - Kris
Message From Kris - Hey all, We're growing & getting more office space, thinking of taking on more than we can handle now (top floor of a building on Queen W & John St, beside CityTV building) and subletting space to other passionate types. If you know anyone who's in the market for creative office space & would be a good addition to our happy feng shui, appreciate it if you'd let them and/or me know. Thanks! - Kris


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