Working with 
a client recently, there was a realization that in order to move forward with skills and capabilities a great deal of personal risk was required. Many are happy to take this risk, but others need some safety nets to assist them along the way.
It becomes particularly difficult when we are now working in and increasingly so, a complex environment. We are taught that you plan and get a certain end result. This seems to be applied to ourselves and our own personal and professional development as well. Given the complex nature of the world today, aiming in a straight line is not the best way to go . Rather it requires shifts and changes and working with risk ie engaging in probes and experiments in a complex space and learning from safe fail experiences. This is where the risk comes in. Some are able to do this and have a sense of adventure about it all whereas others recoil from it for a variety of reasons.
In thinking about this, the methods of Protective Behavoirs seemed a good way to go. This involves understanding the idea of risking on purpose, fun to feel scared and the like as per the continuum of safety. ( see http://www.cre-ativ-cognicion.com.au/2012/07/leadership-risk-and-personal-safety/ )It also involves developing safety networks that you can work with if needed. We might need a number of these as adults. Some for work and some for our personal lives. Along with this is being in touch with our own emotional signals as to where we are on the safety continuum and knowing we can make a choice a bout where we put ourselves.
The Principles and practice of Protective Behaviors and the concepts of complexity are currently being applied in coaching work undertaken by Creative Cognicion as way of developing people to be effective in their working lives.
