How to you put a jigsaw puzzle together?
We all know that the right way to do so, is to first start with the corner pieces and then the edge pieces, to build out the frame.
Or, is it?
Have you ever watched a little kid put a puzzle together?
Now, mind you, I mean before we adults interfere and show them how.
Most kids start with their favorite piece.
Perhaps, it’s the shiny blue one, or the one with the most variety of colors. Maybe, it’s the weirdest shaped one that is different and a bit odd.
The point is that it doesn’t matter.
They pick whatever piece calls to them, or in all reality, just happens to be the first one they grab. It doesn’t really have to be more complex than that.
Because they don’t have an agenda.
In their mind, there is no right way to do it, there just is.
For a child, it’s more about having fun, challenging their brain, and being creative. It’s simply another way for them to explore their own curiosity.
Why, then, as adults do we make it so complicated.
We are so rigid, and orderly. There is the way, or else it can’t be done.
I use this as example when working with the teams I train. I particularly like to bring this illustration into my discussions when working with sales engineers, or those with more technical backgrounds, and the like.
And, here’s why …
Most engineers (and, I say this with a lot of love and respect, as I have a mechanical engineering degree, myself), tend to be extremely linear and logical in their thinking. Which, of course, serves them well in the bulk of the work they do and what they create.
However, those who default to thinking linearly, also can get stuck in a rather fixed mindset (see Carol Dweck’s work in her fantastic book: Mindset for more). Meaning that they can get locked into only one way of thinking.
When I am working with teams to redefine and reframe how we look at leadership (or, even when I am coaching my executive-level clients), the objective of my work is threefold:
- To help them get crystal clear on the what they want, including their direction and next steps. In that context, I then serve as a mirror reflecting back what they said, and what may be getting in their way.
- To help them consider alternate paths and solutions. Thereby, help to broaden and expand their perspective around the options available for them. To remind them that there is an infinite field of potential, and also an infinite pool of possibilities from which to draw.
- To help hold them accountable in the goals and direction they set for themselves as a result of these strategic discussions and workshoping.
My role, fundamentally, is to have them look at the puzzle differently.
To imagine for a moment that they could build it, or construct it, in a completely divergent way.
Now, this is not as easy as it might sound.
In one particular session, I was facilitating for a group of account reps at GE Healthcare, when I drew this illustration on the board, and asked the question, “How do you put a puzzle together?” — of course, I received the typical answer, “First the corner pieces, then the edges.”
I then challenged them and out this thought into the conversation:
“So, how does a child put a puzzle together … before you tell them or show them what to do? What is their natural instinct?”
This always slows down the discussion (another objective of mine) to get them really thinking. When I share the idea that they just pick a random piece, and start from there, most of the group agrees with that reasoning.
Then, I suggested the following:
“Imagine if, instead of building the puzzle by starting with the corner pieces and edges, you started from the inside out?
And, better yet, what if you toss aside all the corner and edge pieces altogether … and the cover of the box with the picture on it.”
No joke, there was actually a very loud gasp that took over the entire room when I posed that possibility.
One of the guys in my training nearly passed out. It was too much.
After the laughing died down (I mean it was hilarious … you would have thought someone killed his dog or something), I brought the group back to what had just happened.
I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better illustration to make my point.
I mean, the very idea of stepping away from, not only, the literally box, but the figurative one, as well, was completely outside of what they could fathom is, and could be, possible.
The immediate reaction was like, “No way! There is absolutely no way possible we can put the puzzle together without the corner and edge pieces … and, most definitely, without the picture on the box.”
Ah, and there is the crutch.
We are so rigid and fixated on the one (and only) way we can do or approach something. We lock into the equation that 1+1 = 2, and that 1+1 is the only way to 2, forgetting that the square root of 4 also gets us there.
I wrote a previous article about this phenomenon, you can check out here:
We create such limiting perceptions around what’s truly possible. And, in our comparison of others, we tend to limit…medium.com
We lose sight of the reality that there are more ways to bring a solution to life. It’s simply a matter of expanding beyond our limited thinking.
Did you ever go with your family to a restaurant like Bob Evans or Cracker Barrel as a kid? They used to have these puzzle boards at the table.
Most of these puzzles had multiple ways you could solve them. For instance, one way you put the pieces together you might get a square. Another way you assembled the pieces you might get a diamond, or a star.
There were lots of options, and it kept kids entertained for a while.
Imagine if the puzzle you pulled out of the box has the same potential.
Because, you may not realize, but most of the pieces are mass produced, and there are only so many different shapes and sizes. After a while, they are replicated and several pieces are the same.
Of course, that is if you flip them upside down and don’t look at the printed image side. But, only the piece itself (the cardboard side) and the shape.
You can actually put different pieces together.
Trust me, the engineer in me has tried it. I wanted to see if it were really true, or if I was just hypothesizing. It’s definitely true.
In fact, I actually found myself reminded of this when putting together, what I thought was, an easy 500-piece puzzle, a few weekends ago.
Turns out it wasn’t … at all.
It took me hours to set the frame, to build the border … you know, to start with the corner and edge pieces first.
Only to then to end up deconstructing it all as I actually began to work the picture and the complex image inside.
Apparently, there were a lot of interchangeable pieces.
I had to break the border down multiple times (despite my growing frustration and irritation), in order to get the puzzle to set just right.
Somewhere in the midst of my frustrated build-up, I let out a huge laugh. “Why was I letting this puzzle take me out?,” I thought. “Wasn’t this just suppose to be fun, and actually a way to recharge?”
As it turns out, I somehow managed to turn my fun space, my play, into something else. I made it more than it needed to be. I forgot to just enjoy the process, and let it unfold versus trying to force it my way.
How many times do we do that?
How many times do we take the fun out of exploring new solutions, out of innovating, out of creating, out of playing in the pool of possibilities?
Imagine if you let it all go.
Let go of your need to control it. Let got of your fixed way of seeing the solution. Let go of your need to be right.
Just, let go of all of it.
Imagine if you let go of the idea that you need to construct the puzzle with the corner and edge pieces first.
Imagine if you grabbed your favorite piece, that shiny blue one that speaks to you, and you started with that.
Imagine if you let the puzzle guide you. And, you trusted that each piece would show up exactly as it needed to.
Imagine if you let the vision in your mind unfold and let that be the way you went about putting the puzzle together.
Imagine, instead, if you built the puzzle from the inside out.