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Stop, Ask, Explore: Learn to Navigate Change in Times of Uncertainty
Interruptions and disruptions are a threshold to uncharted territory. You can learn to navigate uncertain transitions - and to flourish in times of unrelenting change.
This book offers readers a practical framework for navigating life's inevitable turning points, thresholds and transitions - at work, at home and in between. Drawing upon more than a decade of research and work with established and emerging leaders across the globe, leadership consultant, Joan P. Ball invites you to reimagine your relationship with uncertainty and recognize the creative potential that exists in the messy middle between life's inevitable What Now? Moments and what comes next.
Stop, Ask, Explore is a lively and eye-opening book that will allow you to more effectively engage interruptions and disruptions and develop the experimental mindset needed to flourish in an era of unrelenting and exponential change. Discover the power of curiosity, wayfinding, and discernment to make sense of uncharted territory and learn to thrive in times of uncertainty.
This book offers readers a practical framework for navigating life's inevitable turning points, thresholds and transitions - at work, at home and in between. Drawing upon more than a decade of research and work with established and emerging leaders across the globe, leadership consultant, Joan P. Ball invites you to reimagine your relationship with uncertainty and recognize the creative potential that exists in the messy middle between life's inevitable What Now? Moments and what comes next.
Stop, Ask, Explore is a lively and eye-opening book that will allow you to more effectively engage interruptions and disruptions and develop the experimental mindset needed to flourish in an era of unrelenting and exponential change. Discover the power of curiosity, wayfinding, and discernment to make sense of uncharted territory and learn to thrive in times of uncertainty.
- GenresSelf HelpPsychology
249 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 3, 2022
8 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 10, 2022
how do you/we prepare for navigating uncertain transitions?
what is no longer working in the ways we learn and do?
what new capacities are being called forth?
what is Wayfinding?
Joan introduces us, with clarity, practicality, and action research, to “What Now? Moments” and how they can be thresholds into accessing creative possibility.
In “Stop, Ask, Explore”, we are held with a three-breath process, guided by practices that allow us to embrace, dance with and reveal the gems of the unknown – uncertainty.
what are those practices?! To find out:
Stop and be curious
Ask what else is possible?
Explore new ways of learning and doing.
here, now.
what is no longer working in the ways we learn and do?
what new capacities are being called forth?
what is Wayfinding?
Joan introduces us, with clarity, practicality, and action research, to “What Now? Moments” and how they can be thresholds into accessing creative possibility.
In “Stop, Ask, Explore”, we are held with a three-breath process, guided by practices that allow us to embrace, dance with and reveal the gems of the unknown – uncertainty.
what are those practices?! To find out:
Stop and be curious
Ask what else is possible?
Explore new ways of learning and doing.
here, now.
April 4, 2022
Just WOW. There are ways in which this book is a reminder and others in which it is a radically new approach. However it lands on you, I can only and simply say - read this, gift this, suggest this. Now would be the moment to open ourselves to the wayfinding approach Joan Ball lovingly shares in Stop Ask Explore. The idea of elevating the value of your values by first making sense of them, well yes, that is essential for us all.These days are far too overwhelming without the tools in STOP ASK EXPLORE. My new gift for those I love!
March 29, 2022
It's hard to imagine a world more uncertain and unsettling than our current one. Disruption and change are seemingly around every corner in our personal and professional lives, and many of us are struggling to manage this abundance of uncertainty. In this extraordinary book, Joan Ball doesn't just tell us 'how' to deal with change through 10 generic steps, but instead helps us learn how to navigate change in our own unique way.
Drawing upon the fire preparedness mantra of 'stop drop roll', Ball has devised 'stop ask explore' to help us respond to uncertain transitions, whether positive (we have a new opportunity) or negative (we encounter a forced disruption). 'Stop' (get out of our 'flight, fight, freeze' response'), 'Ask' (open up a space for inquiry), 'Explore' (experimentation and active waiting) is an insightful and compelling alternative to the plethora of books telling us to get comfortable being uncomfortable, without providing any tools or methodologies for doing so.
I would recommend reading this initially straight through to understand the overall process and get comfortable with the terminology, and then reading again (slowly) with a specific transition or challenge in mind, so you can deeply engage the process in your own unique context. I, for one, will be keeping the book on my desktop so I can revisit it again at the next major point of inflection.
Drawing upon the fire preparedness mantra of 'stop drop roll', Ball has devised 'stop ask explore' to help us respond to uncertain transitions, whether positive (we have a new opportunity) or negative (we encounter a forced disruption). 'Stop' (get out of our 'flight, fight, freeze' response'), 'Ask' (open up a space for inquiry), 'Explore' (experimentation and active waiting) is an insightful and compelling alternative to the plethora of books telling us to get comfortable being uncomfortable, without providing any tools or methodologies for doing so.
I would recommend reading this initially straight through to understand the overall process and get comfortable with the terminology, and then reading again (slowly) with a specific transition or challenge in mind, so you can deeply engage the process in your own unique context. I, for one, will be keeping the book on my desktop so I can revisit it again at the next major point of inflection.
April 26, 2022
Given all the uncertainty we've been facing, this book provides much needed steps to take our next steps. It's a must read.
July 18, 2022
Joan Ball is remarkable and her work is a gift. “Stop, Ask, Explore”, has arrived at a time when we’re all trying desperately to make meaning in the messy for ourselves, our teams and our loved ones.
This work is significant for a myriad of reasons. Joan has fortified decades of scholarship and, has masterfully built on and extended the exceptional resilience research of Dr. Michael Ungar. More importantly, “Stop, Ask, Explore” has teeth, not because of the research, but because it is grounded in rich evidence-based, action-oriented practice.
Joan knows her work deeply and has accomplished what few authors can do well; she knows it and she can show it! Her perspective(s) are eloquently simple, accessible and exceptionally practical. She provides a refreshing and tangible framework for reflection, reflexivity, experimentation and action.
Joan offers a new kind of hope – one, that is backed by evidence. She provides tried and tested practice applications, designed to get us all closer to better, at a time when such resources matter most. This book holds within it, the capacity to strengthen and sustain our individual and collective resilience through and well beyond the “what now” moments of, uncertainty, change and crises.
This work is significant for a myriad of reasons. Joan has fortified decades of scholarship and, has masterfully built on and extended the exceptional resilience research of Dr. Michael Ungar. More importantly, “Stop, Ask, Explore” has teeth, not because of the research, but because it is grounded in rich evidence-based, action-oriented practice.
Joan knows her work deeply and has accomplished what few authors can do well; she knows it and she can show it! Her perspective(s) are eloquently simple, accessible and exceptionally practical. She provides a refreshing and tangible framework for reflection, reflexivity, experimentation and action.
Joan offers a new kind of hope – one, that is backed by evidence. She provides tried and tested practice applications, designed to get us all closer to better, at a time when such resources matter most. This book holds within it, the capacity to strengthen and sustain our individual and collective resilience through and well beyond the “what now” moments of, uncertainty, change and crises.
August 19, 2022
Joan P. Ball's book is an invaluable tool if you find yourself in a period of transition. Dr. Ball couples decades of life experience with deep research insights and synthesizes the two into pithy, yet complex and practical strategies to move forward when the future is uncertain. We are living through times of uncertainty and this book is a must have on your bookshelf. I have not always appreciated the beauty of ambiguity, Joan helps us understand how ambiguity can propel our creativity. I love Joan's ideas about wayfinding too. Sometimes, we are in an unfamiliar place, without a compass. What do we do?!!! Joan's book is a helpful guide full of sage advice to assist as we navigate an often uncertain world. As an entrepreneur, a Mom of teenagers (wow) and a growing human being, Joan's book is invaluable. Buy it, you won't regret it!
April 26, 2022
Super smart and super insightful. A terrific read!
April 26, 2022
This book will teach you the art of navigating the mess of change. Wow. Perfect tools and perspective for this moment in history.
November 26, 2023
Enjoy supporting fellow St. John's authors.
April 18, 2022
A simple and effective framework to approach the the problems we face every day.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews