Archive for the 'Change' Category
Are Your Routines Stifling Your Possibilities?
Don’t get me wrong – I love routines. They are familiar, easy, often effective, some times pleasurable. But that may be precisely the problem. For the very same reasons, routines are also dangerously seductive. Undue reliance on them can cause us to become handcuffed, ultimately causing our today’s and tomorrow’s to look like our yesterday’s. Daily, well-trodden pathways can produce well-worn feelings. Be careful of routines, sometimes they are so good they are bad.
Of course, routines cannot be beaten when they help us accomplish recurring tasks, but if we want to construct wonderful memories, then we may need to halt what is ordinary and orderly in order to do what is extraordinary and new.
For many of us, our professional lives do us a favor. They provide variety and challenge. Even so, there is routine. We leave for work at about the same time each day, we travel the same route, we do similar tasks each day, we go home by the same route at about the same time, we eat, watch TV, check e-mail and voice mail, go to bed at the same general time, etc. And wake up tomorrow in order to leave for work at the same time and do it all over again.
How about it? Will you remember today, tomorrow or the next day one year from now? If not, then maybe it’s time to give yourself a break from your routine. Have an adventure. Make that call. Arrange that trip. Visit that place. Introduce yourself. Make a beginning. Make an ending. Write it. Buy it. Say it.
You gave many other people gifts. It’s time to give yourself the gift of possibilities and make your days and your life memorable.
Breaking out of the Box!
Do you find yourself stuck in the proverbial box? Can’t figure out how to get out of it? Wish you were more creative, innovative, original?
I’ve often wished I were more intuitive and creative. I admire people who have intuition and creative ability. I marvel at their sense of originality. My sister is a very talented fine artist and compared to her I have always felt I had very little creativity. Oddly enough, she thinks I am very creative, but in a totally different sense. She in fine arts, I in finding solutions to business problems.
I don’t have any empirical research to back up my hunch, but I’d bet that one of the reasons we often have difficulty getting ‘out of our box’ is that we simply don’t slow down long enough to listen to the intuition we do possess. I know it is very easy for me to get caught up in the activity trap and not spend enough time in simple reflection.
Look what happens when we take the time to intentionally ‘get out of our box’. Here are three examples of how I’ve been able to tap into my creative side and take a non-traditional approach to an age-old dilemma. The age-old dilemma is how to get the business of a potential client or even get in the door. My ‘out of the box’ approach follows….and by the way, I got the business.
* I wanted to meet an influential person who was on a Board of Directors so I offered to design and facilitate the Board of Directors retreat on a pro bono basis.
Out of the Box Thinking – Find a creative way to meet those who make the decisions!
* I wanted to be the provider of choice for selected topics for programs offered through a community college so I made it a point to meet each of the members of the College Board of Directors.
Out of the Box Thinking – Figure out who has the power to influence the decisions!
* By inquiring about the typical work pattern at a potential client site, I figured out when the key Director I wanted to meet would most likely to be in the office. By dropping in at this opportune time, I was able to get an impromptu meeting with the Director I needed to see.
Out of the Box Thinking – Find out when the person you need to meet is most probably available.
I know if I stop and listen to my intuition, if I intentionally get out of my ‘activity-trap box’, I am just as creative as my fine-arts sister, but in a very different way. While she can take ordinary things and make them beautiful, I can take ordinary situations and turn them into business solutions. Try it, I’ll bet you can too! Let me know if these TIPS help you get out of your box.
Successfully Managing and Executing Change
Few things in business are as difficult as executing change. In fact the only thing more difficult than the change itself is making it stick. Change can be frustrating, especially when it doesn’t become permanent and a company reverts back to its traditional ways, leaving change advocates feeling a bit like Sisyphus, ceaselessly pushing the same boulder up the same hill, only to have it roll back down again.
How can you create lasting change and prevent a change from becoming a fad or “flavor of the day”? Change is a process and like all processes contains several phases. To create successful and lasting change, managers and leaders must do the following:
- Create a sense of urgency
- Recruit senior level support
- Develop a clear and practical vision
- Maintain frequent and consistent communication of the vision
- Eliminate obstacles that block the vision
- Celebrate short term wins
- Do not declare victory too early
- Change the corporate culture