Coaching practices for Oblique Strategies in a New Job

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Oblique Strategies in a New Job, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• My whole job search is just refreshing job boards and firing off applications into the void, competing with hundreds of strangers for whatever happens to be posted
• I’ve got a new hire starting and the lazy move is to just hand them whatever’s piled up in the backlog
• I’m good at my actual job, but lately I keep wading confidently into the next thing over
• I’ve decided the lesson from this success is “focus narrow” or “go big”
• I’m torn between two things I care about

Practices that may help

1. Oblique Strategies, Made Practical
   Oblique Strategies is a deck of constraint-based prompts created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt to interrupt habitual thinking during creative blocks. The prompts work by forcing an indirect, unexpected approach to a problem rather than attacking it head-on. Evidence for constraint-based creativity is solid in cognitive research; the specific deck is widely used in music, design, and writing with strong anecdotal support.
2. Build and work a target list of roles and organisations
   Replace passive job board browsing with active research into specific organisations you want to understand.
   Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network
3. Use genius mapping in onboarding
   Surface a new hire’s geniuses early so you design their role around energy, not just skills.
   The 6 Types of Working Genius (Patrick Lencioni)
4. Know and mark the edges of your circle
   Label the boundary clearly: 'inside my circle’ vs 'outside my circle’ vs 'I am not sure.'
   Circle of Competence
5. Directing — high direction for the eager novice
   With someone new and keen but unskilled, give clear, specific instruction and tight structure.
   Situational Leadership, Made Practical
6. Steelman the strategy opposite to the successful one
   Before adopting a lesson from a success story, build the best possible case for the opposite approach.
   Survivorship Bias: Learning from What You Can’t See
7. Use the bullseye to resolve competing values
   When two values pull in different directions, the bullseye shows you which domain is most neglected and most in need of attention.
   Values Bullseye, Made Practical
8. Spend real time on growth, not just tasks
   Regularly leave the weeds and talk about career, skills, and where they’re headed.
   Effective One-on-Ones, Made Practical
9. Test whether a ZOPA exists before investing further
   When you suspect there may be no overlap, surface the zone gap early rather than investing time in an impossible deal.
   ZOPA: The Zone of Possible Agreement
10. Use social transitions to change the norms around your behavior
    When your social group changes, use the transition to adopt the behavioral norms of the new group rather than carrying old ones.
    The Habit Discontinuity Effect

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.