Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Instead Of Making A Very Bold Change

Many  business man and owners of business hate the idea of change. There is a lot involved in creating change. It takes a lot of energy, focus and dedication with a sometimes uncertain outcome. And yet many find themselves in a situation where they know they have to make a change.

Instead of making a very bold change, most try and water things down by approaching it with what they think is a common sense approach. The problem is, by believing that common sense is the best approach to change, the business owner gives himself permission to not really change at all.

Here are some of the disastrous common sense questions I here from clients:

Q: Isn't it important to make reasonable changes?
A: Yes, but it depends on which type of reason you use.

Reason Strategy #1 - The wrong way. The worst way to use reason to make a change is to think in reverse. This is where the business owner looks at how he's always done things, and applies this way of doing things to his decision. It 's reasonable because he is familiar with it, comfortable with it, and he thinks he can safely predict an outcome.

The problem is that doing more of the same doesn't produce change; it produces more of the same.

Reason Strategy #2 - The Right way. The best way to use reason is to base it on a desired future outcome. Here the business owner picks a specific point where she wants to be and then reasons her way into the outcome, regardless of where she is right now.

She will ask herself very powerful questions like,  "who do I need to have on my team to make this happen?",  "what knowledge do I need to achieve this goal?", "what skills do my people need to allow a breakthrough?"

Q: How do I minimize the discomfort in making the change?

A: You can't ; not if you want to create significant change.

The whole process of change is inherently uncomfortable. Almost by definition it moves us out of our comfort zone. While it's true that the bigger the change the more discomfort we feel, a big change will also offer potentially huge rewards.

Focus on the big rewards and you will develop the courage necessary to move through the discomfort.

No one has ever made it into the history books by being sensible. The make an impact on this world by being bold, daring, passionate and courageous.

No comments:

Post a Comment