Transformation Begins in the Mind
[Music]
enid blyton
has a lot to answer for it was through
reading her books
as a child the famous five and the
secret seven
series that i developed a love of
adventure
it seemed like an ordinary dare with
friends and a dog
could be transformed into an amazing
adventure
i was hooked and yet in real life
all the adventures i read about seemed
to be men
and i wasn’t a man nor did i have an
awful lot of pocket money
and i imagined that the expeditions and
adventures that they other took
would be too expensive for me so i began
to believe
it wasn’t possible for me to be an
adventurer
yet in 1996 i became the first british
woman
to ski to the magnetic north pole
prior to that i’d never been further
north
than aberdeen in scotland i’d never done
any cross-country skiing
before and i’d never experienced wearing
the same clothes
for an entire month having
achieved such a success i realized
that i was capable of far more than i
had imagined possible
before that and i realized that that’s
about transformation transformation is
about changing how we think
not what we know it’s about
seeing and believing that bigger things
are possible
and having the willingness to take a
step into the unknown
despite uncertainty
when bill gates was reading the new york
times article
that talked about poor sanitation being
one of the biggest reasons
for early childhood mortality in
developing countries
he was intrigued to discover more about
that problem
and as he learned and began to pay
attention more to it
he tried to get some universities
involved to see if they would be
interested
to help think about ways to solve the
problem
but there seemed to be little interest
however he wasn’t deterred
because he believed he could find a way
and so the reinvent the toilet
challenge was created grants were
awarded to 16 researchers
around the world and it became a
competition
what bill gates had realized is he had
to transform how
other people viewed that problem he had
the belief
to move forwards and find a way to
address it
even though there was a high degree of
uncertainty
back in my life when i left school and
got a job
in an organization i hankered after
having some adventures
and one day on the notice board at work
there was an advert
talking about an expedition that was
going to be organized by an
international charity
and five employees could go and spend
three months in a remote part of the
world
carrying out scientific community and
adventure projects
and you got your salary paid i thought
everybody would apply for this
and it seemed to me the great chance to
have an adventure
well there was a selection process
involved
which involved over two days we had to
go through a whole series of mental and
physical challenges
often not knowing when they would be
happening
and what they would be so there was a
high degree of uncertainty
i thought the best way to to cope with
this situation
was to draw upon my strengths remind
myself of the things i knew i was good
at
in other situations such as enthusiasm
and decisiveness and sure enough
those things helped me get through and i
found myself winning a place
on the expedition i then had to raise
fifteen hundred pounds to subsidise my
place
and i arrived in kenya and spent three
months there
with 120 other young people from all
around the world
to carry out a series of scientific
community and adventure projects
what that expedition did is it changed
my life
it transformed me and enabled me
to believe that i had bigger
capabilities than i had ever imagined
and envisaged possible
and then after that back in the uk
i took part in what is another
important aspect of transformation
taking time to reflect
i looked at what had helped me to be
successful
on that expedition and reflection
enables us to look at the things that
have worked
understand what we can learn from them
and think about how we can apply them
in different aspects of our work and
life going forwards
it was an amazing experience and also
gave me the confidence to look for
bigger
and more exciting challenges in the
future
what came up next was another advert in
the newspaper
six years later still with this idea of
adventure in my mind
i’d now transform my thinking about what
adventure actually meant
this advert said challenging
opportunities for people not afraid
of hard work in a rapidly changing
environment this was an opportunity
for a one-year contract in a war zone
and whilst most people thought i was
completely crazy to even consider it
i saw it as a chance to have another
adventure
in fact adventures are all around us
all the time we don’t need to go to the
north pole to have an adventure
you can have one every single day try
something different
to eat for your breakfast walk down a
street in your town or city
that you’ve never been down before and
see what you can learn there
just take a conversation with your loved
one and ask them a different question
than you’ve ever asked before
all of these things are examples of
stepping into the unknown
of doing something that has an uncertain
outcome but with the innate belief that
we’ll learn
something from it and that’s what
transformation
is all about
when i got the job in the war zone i
survived
and i realized that these challenges
enable us to learn and grow
what also happens is we learn about risk
taking
which is a core part of stepping into
the environment where things are
uncertain
that then meant when the next
opportunity came along
i was ready for it the real big
challenge and part of that
evolution of growth and development is
what carol dweck
calls the growth mindset our willingness
to embark
into uncertain situations to keep seeing
perseverance as an opportunity
to learn well the next time
the advert said it said wanted
10 novice arctic explorers ski 350 miles
to the magnetic north pole i had
absolutely no
idea if that that was going to be
possible but there were two criteria
that the team
were looking for the first was the
ability to work in a team
i knew i could do that and the second
was the ability to raise 15
000 pounds to pay from a place on the
expedition
i had absolutely no idea how to do that
but the belief i had in my mind was
if it’s meant to be i’ll find a way to
make it happen
so i sent off for the application form
would you believe
it came back and it was all pictures of
men
and the title was are you man enough
for the ultimate challenge well that
certainly motivated me to apply
as did hundreds and hundreds of others
in that process of selection again
i thought it was important to draw on
strengths and be reminded of my
strengths
because those were the things that any
of us when we’re thinking about
transforming
and developing our capabilities gives us
a degree of confidence
the strengths are the things that we
enjoy doing and that
give us energy and enthusiasm so again i
reminded myself of the strengths that i
had used and other expeditions in the
past
and surely those things would help me to
get in the expedition team
and yes they did i was selected as one
of the team of ten novices
for this expedition but the challenges
didn’t stop there because i still had to
raise a substantial amount of money that
i had no idea how to do it
that where that is where the sense of
belief comes in
belief that no matter what you do even
if successful or not
you’ll learn something from it well i
wrote to all my friends
family members sponsors companies that
had anything to do with the cold or
women or adventure
most people didn’t bothering replying
and if they did they said no
however one sponsor eventually agreed to
support the expedition
and there were two good reasons for that
our expedition was going to be filmed by
the bbc
and if successful of course i found out
i’d be the first british woman
to get there so there was a compelling
reason
for them to support me they were going
to trust me
and put their trust in me so now i had
to put my trust in my fellow team
members
who are going together with me into an
environment
that virtually wants you dead where
survival
is an option
so what we had to do was to build trust
to transform ourselves from this bunch
of individuals into
a team a challenge that many leaders
these days can face
it was back to strengths sharing
together
what we were good at and what we felt we
brought to the team
accompanying with that recognizing
what were our vulnerabilities and where
we prepared
to share what they were because in an
environment like the arctic as with many
organizations
as well you can’t control things
when you’re in a team or as a leader
there are so many factors that are
outside of our control
so we have to be able to accept and let
go of those things
and focus on what we can control
that was about being open and sharing
and when any of us
are willing to accept and share our
vulnerabilities it we unconsciously give
permission for others to do the same
how we did this was we all created a
if list writing down what our greatest
fears were
about participating in the expedition
well what if we meet a polar bear
what if somebody falls through the ice
what if i just can’t stand the people
i’m sharing a tent with
and lo and behold when we shared all
those fears together
many other people shared them too and
now we just didn’t feel so alone we were
much more
connected emotionally as a team we were
transforming ourselves
by our willingness to act to step
into a situation that had a high degree
of uncertainty
but with an innate belief that it would
work out and we would learn something
that expedition took over 30 days
in temperatures that were often cold
enough
to freeze your flesh in seconds and yet
in the end we were successful as a team
back in the uk in the comfort of my own
home i began to reflect
on what this had all been about i never
realized that i could achieve something
like that
and yet i had i had transformed my view
not only of what adventure meant but
about what any of us
can do to really step out and challenge
ourselves in the world
i realized there was a bigger reason for
it
and if i could use that experience of my
journey
and getting to the north pole maybe it
could inspire other people
to think about what their north pole is
and to transform their selves
and go on that journey so you don’t need
to be a man or have a lot of money to go
on an adventure
all you need is the desire to transform
the belief that you can achieve it the
willingness
to take action and to act despite
uncertainty
and who knows just like enid blyton
you two can have a great adventure
thank you