Step back to see the Board

Who likes to play board games? Any Settlers of Catan fans out there? 

Or maybe you only play because your family cajoles you into it? 😅

Either way, the humble board game offers a surprisingly rich metaphor to help us level up our influencing, negotiation and leadership game. 

It’s all about perspective. 

Are you engaging like a pawn on the board - or are you the player? 

In a recent workshop with an in-house legal team, we explored the dangers of preoccupation, fixation, tunnel vision and something called inattentional blindness - our very human tendency to become so fixated on one thing that we miss the obvious thing. 

Which, by the way, is a MASSIVE thing. 

So many opportunities walk through the middle of our meetings unnoticed, simply because we’re so fixated on “our thing.” 

Back to the legal team. We leaned into the board game metaphor as a reminder to step back - to detach from the action - so that we see the whole board. 

From that vantage point, we can ask questions like: 

🎲 Who’s playing?

🎲 How are they keeping score?

🎲 What resources are in play?

🎲 Who’s collaborating, and who’s not? 

When we zoom out like this, we bring a level of insight, judgment and calm to the conversations and relationships that matter most. 

What about you? 

When was the last time you stepped back to see the board? 

Or have you (and your team) been stuck on the board? ♟️