If we want to make a big impact, let’s get good at making a small impact then set a goal for one order of magnitude bigger. Doing well at the smaller level earns us the cred to go bigger. And setting a 1000% growth goal gives us the courage to make the changes needed to […]
Try as we might, some people won’t do what we need them to do. It’s not that they are bad or stupid. It’s that they aren’t ready yet or our message isn’t the right one for them. So what can we leaders do? We can raise our buzz, model the approach we want them to […]
Our organizations need something different from us at each size and stage. What had worked so well for us becomes less and less effective as our organizations grow and evolve. Worse, our familiar ways of leading can do damage. For example, smaller and newer companies need us to be bold, demanding, and hands-on. As they […]
Training can help us grow ourselves and our organizations. It is great for creating a common understanding across people, introducing tools and approaches, and opening minds. But when we get back to our desks after training, we will quite likely to revert to old ways. And it will have been an expensive miss. We need more than training […]
We change when the benefits minus the pains of changing are greater than the benefits minus the pains of not changing. Not because someone said so. Not because we should. We don’t change–even when we desire the change–because we are over-valuing the benefit of staying or the pain of changing. To help ourselves and others […]
If we want to influence a big change, we need not spend much time trying to convince the naysayers, the haters, the opponents. They will change or not. And they are only a minority. Instead, we concentrate on the lovers, the crew, the vanguard. They are also a minority. But once they are inspired, we can help this minority create […]
Change can appear so hard that we often will do anything to avoid it. Stagnation happens inside organizations from this fear of change. Come to think of it, stagnation anywhere indicates we are telling ourselves fearful stories about what might happen if things change. Once we do change, we can feel lost, be unsure of […]
Selling or influencing or leading change can be like riding the local train making all stops: it takes a long time. Often too long. We waste way too much time because we think we need to get our ducks in a row, know the answers, prove ourselves, and be perfect so that others will listen, […]
Some of us are action junkies. Some of us are devotees of the Think System. Yet whenever we want to make a change, we must do both the inside work (thoughts) and the outside work (actions). Thought without action leads to spinning. Action without thought leads to frustrating results. So our thoughts about the future must be clear, […]
In order to change someone’s mind, start where their mind is now. Should we start with our position–by convincing, educating, lobbying, telling, fighting, begging, tricking, arguing, ordering, or whining–they will raise shields. We must, instead, ask good questions and listen. They must first agree that we have heard their thinking before they will let us change […]