The BOLD (Clarity?)
How do you know that you have achieved clarity? We all want it. My clients earn it by following design cycle principles to achieve it. It is necessary for forward movement, powerful planning, inspiring speech, and impactful action. As important as it is, I suspect most of us wish for it without knowing how to recognize it when it happens.
In my experience, we know we have clarity when we discover that we are in motion, have been in motion, and have to think to identify the moment the movement started.
That moment was clarity.
It is like jet fuel. We may hold a notion that clarity is like a bright open meadow under a clear, cloudless sky. Nah. It is those incendiary moments when we can see the path between two states of being, and we take it. Extra points if we take others along with us because that is when clarity really ignites powerful impact.
We see in order to move; we move in order to see
William Gibson
The Whisper (Oh, That Was Clarity!)
So how do you know that you have achieved clarity? Clarity has several unexpected qualities that aren’t always what we’ve been taught to expect.
Clarity is earned.
We would love to have clarity delivered like a bolt of lightning. It can feel like it comes that way sometimes, but real clarity comes when we invest. We need the perspectives of others. We need an approach that allows us to identify the issue, determine the possibilities, and run experiments. And we need action. Clarity often comes directly from lather-rinse-repeat experimentation.
Clarity is active.
It is active both in how it is developed and in how it is used. Ah-ha moments aren’t necessarily points of clarity. They can point towards clarity but clarity requires action. If an ah-ha moment delivers an insight and we don’t act to activate that learning by taking action, the ah-ha will fade. We may feel that we need to think our way into our next action, but clarity is achieved by a balance of introspection, research, experimentation, and beta-testing. Try a thing.
Clarity is potent.
Somewhere we’ve developed this notion that clarity is a peaceful, quiet thing. We imagine a wide-open field, free of confusing trees under a cloudless, clear blue sky. Clarity does thrive on mindfulness and practices like meditation may feel like this pastoral image. However, clarity itself is much more like jet fuel than it is simple, passive peace.
Clarity requires the time of uncertainty.
Clarity is not a persistent state. In order to design clarity, we have to be willing to spend time in the space between stories. We have to be able to undergo uncertainty and mess. Knowing comes from not knowing. Clarity has seasons.
Clarity design is a responsibility.
You have a vision of a desirable possible future. However, an idea remains only an idea without implementation. Implementation will undoubtedly require a plan and the efforts of a team. Even if you plan to implement alone, you will need to convince potential constituents that this envisioned solution will benefit them. The person with the vision has the responsibility to design the clarity necessary to move from thought to action and to inspire the efforts of other.
This has been a year of uncertainty and clarity has seemed in short supply. Clarity is not about having all the answers but about having the answer to the question, “What’s next?” We’ve all had individual experiences of a global crisis. How, then, have you known that you’ve achieved clarity this year?
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