How To Put On Your Cape-abilities

In this blog post, you’ll continue to find strategies that you can use to shake up your thinking and unleash your innovation superpowers. Each post defines a tool you need, gives you a summary of what that tool can do for you, some questions that stir your thinking, and an exercise to get you started using the tool. You can either use the tools from start to finish to understand all the tools in your toolkit or you can pick up any tool — play around, use it, and discover how it works for you. 

The last ability in our Cape-ability series is … Availability.

Whatever you want to call it:

• Coming forward
• Appearing
• Emerging
• Materializing
• Stepping forward
• Stepping up
• Taking the initiative
• Rising to the challenge
• Becoming discoverable
• Going all in

It’s all about making yourself available.  You never know how many opportunities are right in front of you if you just make yourself available.  Being present.  Being observant.  Inviting the encounters.  Making eye contact.

availability

[əˌvāləˈbilədē]

NOUN

1. the quality of being able to be used or obtained.
2. the state of being otherwise unoccupied; freedom to do something.

Meeting people very different than you makes you a more interesting person.  So, get across that room at the next event you are attending.  Find humans that you think are your complete opposite and just strike up a conversation.  Try to find commonalities with them.  You probably have more than you think. 

I have a great exercise that I like to use in my creative sessions and it’s all about putting 6 people at a table and put a flip chart paper with a flower drawn on it.  Each person gets a marker and they each get a petal of the flower to express themselves… pictures, words, etc.  But the center of the flower is where they must find at least one commonality amongst the six of them.  This means they have to have rich dialogue in order to find what they have in common.  In other words, they have to make themselves available.  And it’s a beautiful when it comes to fruition.  Connections are made that are robust and meaningful.  And friendships bloom (see what I did there!)

So, get out there with your available self and learn more about other amazing humans!

--gert--