The Zone of Genius: the most powerful thought experiment for personal transformation

The book The Big Leap, by Gay Hendricks, has a lot to answer for in my life. A few weeks ago, myself and a collague gave a group of consultants we are training to be coaches a set of books that have changed us. Sitting here this morning, I can’t help but think The Big Leap should have been in those bags.

The reason it isn’t, I think, is that it is a strange book. It contains some of the most powerful ideas that I have come across when reading about how to change ourselves for the better. And the reason I think that it didn’t feel right to give away as part of the mini-library we shared with them was because it’s never been totally obvious to me how or why those ideas fit together. And so it doesn’t have the same feel that, say, The Art of Possibility or Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps or The Road Less Travelled do for me.  

And yet those ideas in The Big Leap have changed me. I’ve written several times about our Upper Limit Problems. Einstein Time (essentially number 3 here) has not only changed how I think about time but become one of the most common reasons I point people to the article I wrote about time management… and essentially the reason the article isn’t called '15 ways to manage your time better', but '15 ways to transform your relationship with time'.

But the most influential idea in The Big Leap for me is that of the Zone of Genius, which I would describe as the most powerful thought experiment I have come across for personal transformation. The thought experiment is essentially this: what if there is a place where your unique mix of talents, experience, strengths, genes and passions intersect? And, what’s more, what if that place, if you find it and use it as much as possible, has the power to create the most abundance and satisfaction possible in your life? Abundance of money, time, joy and more. What if?

The reason I call it a thought experiment is that I don’t know if it really exists. But I do know what happens for people when you start exploring that idea: it opens up possibility and creates far more likelihood that it is true for that person. That, in fact, is one of the most powerful things about coaching: if you name what you want, if you see a possibility, then almost automatically it becomes more likely that that thing will come to pass.

And so experimenting with the Zone of Genius takes people into a place where they are using their strengths more, where they find more joy, where they feel more empowered and unique, and to a place where they create more abundance and satisfaction. A virtuous, joyous cycle of genius.

To begin to define that unique ability, that Zone of Genius, Gay Hendricks offers a series of questions. I don’t have them to hand (but you have google, or buy the book to find them!), but they go something like this. First, they just open us to the things that matter:

What do you love most to do?

What work do you do that doesn’t feel like work? (Effortlessness is a feature of the Zone of Genius)

What could you do all day without getting tired or bored?

What do you do that creates the highest ratio of satisfaction and abundance to time spent?

Then, having opened you to these things: the things you love, the things that are effortless and energising, the things that create abundance and satisfaction, Hendricks zeroes us in on the unique ability:

When are you at your best?

When you’re doing that, what is the exact thing you’re doing?

And finally, what do you love most about that thing? (The exact thing you're doing when you're at your best.)

Having the answers to these questions, and particularly the final two, then offers you a chance to make the Zone of Genius real. All you have to do is create the opportunity for those things to happen more in your life. Hendricks says it took him decades to get from a tiny percentage of his time being spent in his Zone of Genius to getting to about 90%. But in my experience there are usually some quick wins.

These questions were influential for me. Noticing what didn’t feel like work gave me permission to talk to more coaches about coaching and coaches, which in the end led to the creation of The Coach’s Journey: my attempt to take what I loved about having conversations about coaching (that had also created an incredible abundance and satisfaction for me: writing this article was my answer to that question about the abundance:time ratio) and do it more and more and more.

And, although I didn’t realise it, the 12-Minute Method was a Zone of Genius practice for me. Because when I zeroed in on those final two questions, my unique ability came back as something like: sharing myself, deeply and with love, with the world.

And what happens when I write with the timer, whatever I’m called to write? And then post it? Well, I get out of my own way, write from the heart, letting the writing flow from me, and then I share it.

And gradually, as I’ve taken this practice further, I have got better at getting into that state of sharing.

And of course if I answered now, these questions, well, setting off on a 12-miute writing practice has created an enormous amount of satisfaction and abundance. I have changed, my business has changed, I’ve even written a book… well, four. And all from 12 minutes a week.

So, that is the beginning of what might be possible if we understand and then use our unique abilities. What are you waiting for? 
--

This is the latest in a series of articles written using the 12-Minute Method: write for twelve minutes, proof read once with tiny edits and then post online. 

The first 12-Minute Method Book - How to Start When You're Stuck - is out now!