Adam Alter, a marketing professor at NYU Stern and author of 'Anatomy of a Breakthrough,' delves into the universal experience of feeling stuck. He discusses how distractions can impede progress in both personal and professional realms. Alter shares innovative strategies for overcoming stagnation, including the surprising tactic of doing nothing. He emphasizes the importance of diverse perspectives and mindful actions in fostering breakthroughs, alongside psychological techniques that encourage creativity and collaboration within organizations.
Recognize the immersiveness of being stuck and take small actions to initiate progress.
Overcome stuckness by slowing down, engaging in reflective decision-making, and cultivating a supportive environment for growth.
Deep dives
Understanding Being Stuck: A Universal Experience
Being stuck is a common experience that affects individuals in various life spheres, not limited to creative fields. Research has shown that successful individuals and businesses have faced periods of being stuck before pivotal breakthroughs. The experience of being stuck is distinct from mere adversity as it involves a prolonged mental blockage where individuals can sense a need for change but struggle to identify the necessary shift, a condition worsened by procrastination. Overcoming being stuck involves recognizing its immersiveness and isolating nature, encouraging small actions to initiate progress.
Navigating Stuckness: Psychological Insights and Strategies
The experience of being stuck brings discomfort and a sense of loneliness, emphasizing the need for effective coping mechanisms. Psychological research reveals that being stuck triggers a primal urge to 'flail,' a counterproductive response in situations requiring thoughtful strategizing. Managing stuckness involves slowing down, accepting the current position, and engaging in deliberate, reflective decision-making to determine the optimal path forward. Leaders and individuals are encouraged to acknowledge the discomfort of being stuck, explore diverse perspectives, and cultivate a supportive environment for growth.
Embracing Growth through stuckness: Harnessing Challenges for Development
Periods of being stuck, if approached constructively, can spur significant personal and professional growth. Studies reveal that creative breakthroughs often occur after facing substantial challenges and diverging from conventional ideas. Embracing difficulty signals a shift towards generating truly innovative and valuable solutions. Encouraging the exploration and exploitation phases, individuals can adapt strategies from exploration to exploitation and vice versa, fostering incremental progress and sustainable success.
You don’t have to be a famous author to suffer from writer’s block. We all can get stuck in our thought processes and mired in our actions. That's true for leaders and managers as well, explains Adam Alter, a marketing professor at the NYU Stern School of Business. He has studied how people hit plateaus or roadblocks in their work and careers. And he shares different methods for breaking free, including one proven tactic that seems very wrong: doing nothing. Alter wrote the new book Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most.
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