As a grandfather gazes into the eyes of his infant granddaughter spellbound, he may ponder, “What moonshot will she aspire to? Will she go to Mars?” As his grandchild stares into the eyes of her adoring grandfather mesmerized, she may wonder, “Who is this? What’s he all about?” They are both transfixed, full of awe and curiosity, looking through their own lens, into the lens of the other, that then transforms into a prism of boundless possibilities.
When you look through a triangular prism you see white light being dispersed into a rainbow of brilliant colors. The same principle of physics can be applied to life and work too. When you look at a situation through the prism of positivity you see a rainbow of vivid possibilities.
Kellerman and Seligman offer us a prism to use in today’s transforming workplace, in their book Tomorrowmind: Thriving at Work – Now and in an Uncertain Future.
“We foraged for 200,000 years, farmed for 10,000, and the industrial revolution took place 300 years ago”. Our forager brains have had to adapt to these shifting work environments. Now the gap has widened even more between the way our brains were originally wired to be extremely vigilant of change, and the way they have to respond to today’s constantly shifting sands, rushing waters, rapid change and uncertain future. “We may rightfully feel scared of the uncomfortable mismatches ahead. But we can prepare for what is coming.”
Through extensive research they have identified five key skills we could develop to counter the mismatch and flourish at work today. They have artfully gathered them into an acronym PRISM.
Prospection (P): Foresight
This is our sage ability to both envision beforehand and plan for distinctly different challenges or potentials that are headed our way, so as to manifest robust and concrete outcomes.
Resilience (R): Cognitive Agility
This is our supple ability to bounce back from setbacks. It is how we prepare for an adverse event about to happen; how we respond to the event while it is happening; and how we process the event after it has passed. It includes views from the front windshield (future), side view mirror (present), and rear view mirror (past).
Innovation (I): Creativity
This is our resourceful ability to generate original ideas, nifty processes, novel solutions, and practical applications to diverse situations, domains, populations, time and space.
Social support (S): Rapid Rapport
This is our communal ability to connect with people across geographical distances, cultural differences, age and gender dissimilarities, language hurdles, and hierarchical tiers in the workplace by building trust that sustains.
Mattering (M): Meaning
This is our motivational ability to find significance and life purpose in the work we do, and go a step beyond to know how that is making a difference in the world. “Call this the outside in perspective on meaning”.
Today, more than ever we need refined psychological and social capabilities to navigate the rushing whitewater world. What were called soft skills earlier are now referred to as ‘meta skills’ or ‘power skills’. Finally! It is high time they got due recognition.
If our forager brain knew how to look out for danger (predator in the bushes), it simultaneously developed a keen sense of how to find potential (hunt for food). Today, as we scan the environment for possible threats, we can develop the skills to discern priceless prospects that are spread out there too. We can become adept at responding to rapid change by engaging our strengths.
Let us turn the same energy that is first experienced as anxiety of the unknown, into excitement of the new. Start developing your ‘meta skills’ to create and hone your PRISM powers. Cultivate foresight, cognitive agility, creativity, rapid rapport, and meaning.
As you polish that prism, hold it up in the palm of your hand, look through it, and watch yourself be dazzled by the brightness of the full spectrum of rainbow colors bursting forth!