Read this article from Andy Tilstra, from Creativity Effect, one of our Speakers, for the BTOES From Home.

“What wrong.” I blurted out as soon as I saw her.

“Everything.” She shook her head. 

I had known Julian for years and had attended every single celebration she hosted when she managed yet another boost up her career ladder. First, there was the potluck celebrating her move from accounting intern to full-time employee. Making area manager was lunch at the Olive Garden restaurant. Claiming the title of Director was dinner at the trendy new restaurant. And now, the Senior VP title meant a catered dinner party at her new luxury apartment on the 17th floor overlooking the city.

“I am quitting," Julian said. Her penetrating stare advertised fear.

“What," I stammered. Her haggard appearance suddenly seemed very serious.

“Help me!”

Honestly, my first reaction was to laugh. I mean, laugh right out loud. I bit my tongue. It's that devastating Death Line again, I thought. It is what I call suffocating fear. A deathlike is our worse fears and we will do anything to keep that fear from becoming a reality.

We all have death line that hold us prisoner. Julian’s was Deathlike was, fear of failing. Once we let our death line take hold it highjacks us, all hope of creative or rational thinking goes out the door. It’s squelches our ability to think, ask penetrating questions or problem solve. We simply revert to our worse behavior: shutting down, become angry, racked with fear, irrational, etc. etc. etc.

Before I started helping leaders and organizations build Innovation Labs or develop Innovation Teams, I would have been shocked to see my friend in this condition. Not anymore. And it's not because I've lost faith in leaders, but because we live in such complex, uncertain, and volatile situations, that our Death Lines have increased in intensity and have become aggressively so. Unmanaged Death Line cause us to operate on instinct to self-preserve. Our body is telling us to RUN, and not in the direction of innovation.

Now that you know about the Death Line, do something about it. I found four simple yet powerful words helpful in managing our Death Lines: 4 ACEs: Space, Grace, Pace, and Place (you can spot ACE in each word that stands for Always Create Engagement). The 4 ACEs act as psychological breaks helping us pause and think. We tend to rush into problem solving, believing the faster we work or solve problems the better. This is usually not helpful. Said another way, these 4 ACE words are a bulwark against our Death Lines so we can keep our creative self-alive and well.

Here is the 4 ACEs and their Probes:

• Space – As in mental space –Have I committed to creating new mental space for learning?
• Grace – Have I committed to understanding the real challenge so I can extend Grace to solve the problem.
• Pace – Do I understand the problem well enough to apply the best pace is needed to solve this challenge or run this project.
• Place – What is the best place to solve this challenge - a physical space or a virtual space?

The next time you are in dangerous waters, Pause, breath and then strap on the Life Line of my 4 ACE 4 Probe approach to defeat your death lines and become the innovator and creative problem solver you long to be.