During a week of holiday by the sea I’ve been reflecting on what it takes to get individuals and organisations out of their old habits and into a better place.
My brother is considering changing his job and has a great opportunity to do something really rewarding and stretching. He was at the stage where he risked convincing himself that the Status Quo was the better option until, over the course of a bottle of single malt, we fully explored the benefits of change.
Whatever change we might consider there are plenty of roadblocks and diversions. Whether it be giving up smoking, tackling underperforming teams, or transforming a whole organisation.
Here are my thoughts for the steps:
- Recognise the need or opportunity from change
These might be fear, greed, interest or altruism - Believe that things will be better afterwards
- Plan how change might happen
Anticipate obstacles, but don’t dwell on them. - Confirm the plan is sound
Do you have the resource to make it happen? - Start
- Check progress with feedback, results or support
- Sustain through to the end
- Look for the next opportunity.
I pride myself on being an improvement junkie, but still recognise that I get stuck along the cycle. Usually it is either at step 4 or 6 because I need feedback from others to give me confidence that the idea or execution is good. My problem is that I don’t ask until I have invested so much in an idea that I don’t want to change tack.
So turning over a new leaf: Here’s a half finished idea for a change cycle…
- What do you think?
- Have I missed steps?
- Where on the cycle do you get stuck?
Next time I’ll contrast the cycle with organisations and industries I have worked with and we’ll explore how to keep the momentum
