Your WUP Step #3: Ponder

So, now that you’ve taken notes from your scanning (see step #1) and eavesdropping (see step #2), it’s time to make it interesting.

After collecting your observations for a while, stop, read through your notes, and reflect on them. Ponder them. What are the implications of this? What can I learn from that? Why are so many people doing X, and what might that mean for all of us?

For example, you may ask yourself, Why are so many people watching “Reality Television”? And why doesn’t anyone seem to notice that the phrase “Reality Television” is perhaps the world’s greatest oxymoron? Try to answer your own questions and write this dialogue with yourself in your WUP.

Or maybe one day your blood pressure spiked because you were trying to do some work on your vacation, but you couldn’t get your laptop to connect. So, you had jotted down a note in your WUP that said something like, I can’t find a flippin’ WiFi hotspot when I really need one.

Now, ponder that by asking the question, What are the implications of anytime, anywhere, flawless, lightning-fast internet connections and what’s that going to mean for the way we work in the future? Will people actually take real vacations anymore?

And, again, think about and write your answers to those questions. Observe; ask; ponder; answer.

We don’t give ourselves nearly enough time to reflect. We think we don’t have time, but I’m telling you, if all we’re doing is reacting to things rather than giving ourselves the time to ponder, we’re going to be left in the dust without any new ideas.

Instead, observe, process, interpret, massage and play with your experience of the human drama–or comedy, more likely–write it all in your WUP, and you’ll encourage your brain to look for new, clear insights which will lead, eventually, to new ways of doing things in your business and beyond.

As cool as all that is, the next step is where the magic happens.

Once again, stay tuned.