Challenge Status Quo - Let’s go “all in”! (Part I)
A new year and with that comes New Year´s resolutions! The ultimate “Challenge Status Quo”!
"2020, THIS will be the year that I will … "
... and then you go “all in” with the ambition to c
hange “everything”. But by March you have lost your stamina and you are back doing what you’ve always done. Does that feel familiar?
I can see similarities to how business initiatives are approached - It’s quite often that you go in with an “all in” approach, things should be by the book full steam ahead, and less consideration is done to the specific context and common sense is easily left aside.
So, why do we do this?
Why do we go from 0 to 10 hours physical activity a week, going for a starving diet, doing agile (transformation?) based on a “universally” used framework, take the prescribed medicine stated by some high-profile consultancy firm. And doing so without questioning, without adapting to your abilities and context, without applying some common sense.
Usually, by March you have come to a stale.
- Blaming that we didn’t have the time to go to the gym (underestimation of effort)
- That the diet didn’t work (we were not ready for the commitment)
- That the method or framework didn’t work or that the consultants just didn’t do their job (we didn’t adopt it to our setting, or we basically didn’t understand the fundamentals of what was suggested or prescribed)
I’m not objecting to New Year’s resolutions or making business decisions that will move you in a desired direction. But if it’s not obvious, I’m an advocate of incremental and modest steps. Something that will take you there but not with a message or belief that you can take quantum-leaps. Another important point that I always stress is that while you are on the path to your new destination make sure that you have room to incorporate lessons learned during the way.
Change for the long run, and don’t go about it as if it is a sprint – by doing so you will get it all (and some) without going “all in” with the huge risk of failure.
In coming blogposts Joakim will explain the psychology behind why we act like this and the reasoning why we should act differently. Stay tuned.
Link to Part II - Habits
Link to Part III - The Need to Belong