There is probably no other era in which unexpected disruptive changes and phenomenal innovations are happening every day like the one we’re living in. The world is changing so fast that you can no longer predict where the next wave of change will come from and when it will upend the world.
In 2018, netease, which is at the forefront of Internet innovation, slowed ourselves down and worked hard to decipher the underlying code of innovation. Based on a lot of practice and effect tracking, we finally found an effective method to help individuals and teams break conventional thinking and accelerate self-evolution.
If you do not change your life, you will be revolutionized by others
One must always change his own life, because if he does not change his own life, he is waiting to be revolutionized by others. An organization must constantly reinvent itself, and the stronger the organization, the stronger the past, the stronger the future.
Whether it’s an individual or an organization, the core competence is never the wealth you currently possess, nor the knowledge you possess, nor even the ability you possess. It’s the speed at which your “core algorithms” evolve, your evolving dynamic knowledge of the current world.
However, this kind of dynamic cognitive acquisition can’t be achieved by gobbling up other people’s chewed knowledge. We have to slow ourselves down and take the time to think deeply about what really matters in the situation we’re facing.
So, in this era of accelerated entropy, are there some effective ways to stop, think deeply and multi-dimensionally, and continue to enhance this dynamic cognition, thus accelerating self-evolution?
Find the accelerator of self-evolution
Nearly a year in netease continuous in-depth practice, let us on this issue, began to find some clues. We did more than 20 u-shaped sandtables in succession, some for individuals, some for teams, and each time it was a cognitive refresh of ourselves and our teams.
Half a year later, when I went to review and sort out these records, I was surprised to find that in the more than 20 cases I had done before and after, every one of them, without exception, was accelerating towards the future picture they designed, and some pictures had even become reality. More than that, this change seems to have a fundamental, it fundamentally affects everyone’s work life, and even life.
After witnessing many people (myself included) undergo this kind of Epiphany and self-transformation, I’ve been wondering what it is that allows us to extract so much evolutionary energy from a small sand table. What is it that allows us to break out of the rut, change our patterns, and evolve a better version of ourselves?
Self evolution begins with “seeing yourself.
What is a U-shaped sand table?
Sandbox U is a simple sandbox game designed to help individuals and teams think deeply. It has a set flow, is very easy to get started, even people with no basic can play. You don’t need special materials to make a sand table. Simple and simple materials (balls, balls of thread, velvet, figurines, etc.) can be used, or you can replace them with anything you find.
The first step in the sandbox is to spend 15 minutes visualizing the panorama of your current work or life, using the materials at hand. I always say before I set the table that the sand table is like a mirror. What you get depends on what you put into it. When you really put yourself into it, you will see clearly that what the sand table reveals is your current perception of your environment.
The sand table creates a private context for us, in which each ball and ball of thread represents the specific person and what kind of relationship, as long as the person who places them knows. This design protection of privacy is important for applications in enterprise environments.
Discovering “hidden” evolutionary dynamics
Self evolution begins with seeing yourself, and after seeing yourself, you have all kinds of feelings. You listen to “Liang Ning talks about products”, the first five lectures did not talk about products at all, but all about emotions and feelings. There is a talk about happiness and unhappiness, she said that what kind of person a person will become, what kind of road he will take, lies in his unhappiness. Jobs went over the details again and again, not because he wanted to be perfect, but because they annoyed him.
U-shaped sand table in the model built, the first step up to ask, see their entire panorama presented, how do you feel, the truth is the same. In simple terms, which part do you like the most and which part do you hate the most? What was that upset about? What is it saying to you?
Sometimes it’s hard to find your feelings,
And all too often,
It’s harder to acknowledge these feelings.
But hidden in your deepest feelings,
Is your highest truth.
Conversations with God
In the process of practice, I found that many people here are a little bit stuck, the happy part is relatively easy to identify, the unhappy part will be more hidden. Because ordinary people are not used to talk about feelings, often talk for a long time is the thinking level, most of their own feelings are ignorant.
However, when you allow yourself to explore with curiosity, you discover that the feelings that lie beneath the iceberg are the underlying code for self-evolution. When a person’s core feelings are seen for themselves, a hidden evolutionary dynamic turns on, and suddenly the whole person is different. Some will fall into a long silence, some on the spot began to cry, some will suddenly understand, and can’t wait to go to action…..
Self-evolution may begin with such subtle perceptions. What begins as a small impulse, like the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings in a chaotic system, is enough to brew into a self-evolving hurricane in the future.
The U-shaped sand table provides a framework for thinking
There is a multi-dimensional thinking frame behind the u-shaped sand table’s boosting effect on evolution. After the model is built, the coach will lead the experiencers to stand in four directions of east, south, west and north of the sand table. Starting from the current situation, the experiencers will put in four different perspectives of appreciation, challenge, change and learning to have a comprehensive review of themselves, so as to stimulate new cognition and understanding of the current situation.
A friend told me after the experience that every time I moved to a new direction and looked at my model from different angles, the feeling would be very different. Originally close to their own, in this Angle there is a certain distance; The original thought is far away, never reach, so look at actually may be their own imagination of the distance. And you have a completely different understanding of the situation that you’re facing.
The key to self-evolution is to get out of your playbook
Self-evolution is not an easy thing, few people can notice, every moment, you are unconsciously acting according to the script. The script is the cognitive limitations that we are currently able to reach, including our knowledge of ourselves and our knowledge of the world.
Everything around you that you call life,
Created by people less intelligent than you.
And you, you can change that.
You can make your own impact.
You can do it with your own hands
Create something that gives others good.
Once you realize that,
You will be different.
— Steve jobs
Fortunately, however, you designed the script yourself. Once you see that, you have the freedom to choose. Choose to jump off that wagon of inertia and not let it hold you hostage.
Change in the real world is always difficult. However, when we face the sand table, the mentality will be much more relaxed. What you want your world to look like in the future, move the dolls and balls of string around on the table, remove the things you don’t like and add the things you like. It’s like playing a game.
The ease with which we do what we want makes it easy to enter jobs’s creative space. In such a space of infinite possibilities, designing the future with your own hands is like a fun creative freedom.
After deep reflection from four perspectives, when people finally see their redesigned future picture in the sand table with their own eyes, the power brought is very powerful, some people can not help jumping up and cheering for themselves, cheering for the future.
In order to further consolidate the action, the final step of the sand table must be landed again to more direct and clear action. Comparing the difference between before and after the change, the coach will lead you to discover what you need to do in the real world to make the future you want a reality.
The last word
One marathon enthusiast shared with me after the u-bend that the experience was similar to the state you enter when you run alone. Consciousness comes alive when the body overcomes the fatigue of long runs and goes on autopilot. Between heaven and earth, only myself talking to myself, a lot of self-reflection and deep dialogue, began to emerge naturally, very beautiful.
The U-shaped sand table is a mirror that allows people to see themselves, talk to their mirror image, and look at it from different angles. It turns the invisible into the visible, the ineffable into the communicative, the unconscious into consciousness through simple and plain materials, which is itself a process of self-awareness. And awareness, once produced, is irreversible. This kind of power from the heart, most of the time do not change more sad, so people began to change a little bit.
If you are touched after reading this article, I hope you don’t give up and try it yourself, otherwise nothing will happen. It took me a long time to understand that knowing and doing are two perspectives on the same thing. Perfect knowledge is action, otherwise it is not deep enough to know, and one thinks oneself to know. It is said that “the real and sincere knowledge is action, and the clear awareness of action is knowledge”.
People who act are bound to make mistakes, but that’s why evolution happens. Let us together, change the world, start from change yourself!
Friends from netease, want to experience the U-shaped sand table, you can directly contact the public account appointment. Netease U.LAB is committed to supporting the evolution of individuals and organizations in the corporate environment. We will continue to try to innovate in application and research in action. If you are practicing in the same way, please feel free to discuss with us. For more detailed information about the U-shaped sand table, you can find more introductions on the official account of “Tianxia U”.
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