Fully invested

The word 'invest' comes from the Latin word investire, which literally means "to clothe, cover, or surround".

When somebody is invested, what we're conveying is that they are intimately connect in their relationship with something; like ownership of an asset (investment)...or an idea.

If an idea is invested in, that idea can be thought of as being a part of the make up of that person. They adopt it as their own and fight hard for its survival. Because without that strong connection with the idea...they will feel psychologically and intellectually naked.

Which is the hard lesson that all strategy facilitators, at some point in time, learn.

When helping a group of executives explore the options that are available to them, what becomes clear rapidly is that individuals within the group will, to a greater or less degree, be invested in ideas that they brought with them to the workshop.

Some - over the course of the session - may divest from their preconceived ideas and willingly invest in new ideas as a result of the engagement.

Others might smile, and go along with the energy in the room, pretending to invest in the new ideas; only to reveal a reinvestment in their old ideas long after the gathering has disbursed.

Then there are those who were never going to budge from their idea investments...who generally just keep quiet while 'the pageantry' (the pointless workshop that they have been coerced into attending) continues to waste their time.

People stay invested in their ideas for countless reasons. Which is why the learning journey that strategy requires needs to be facilitated in a way that takes this reality into account.

Workshops then become more of a dance than a simple linear ticking-off-of-things-to-get-done and what emerges is not always so clear cut as everyone may have wanted at the beginning.

There is an art and science to it that takes a lot of skill to navigate the process forward.