When
we are confronted with a problem, our knee-jerk reaction is to fix it. I’m not
talking about common day-to-day problems – a faucet begins to leak, we run out
of milk, etc.—but rather significant business and career issues. These are
problems that have a significant impact on our businesses or our careers. So,
for example, our basic software system keeps crashing, we lose a key employee,
a key vendor closes their doors, or our boss is replaced with someone who rubs
us the wrong way.
In each of these
and similar problems, our instinctual reaction is to fix it. In other words, to
restore the status quo – to return the situation to a state as close to what it
was previously as possible. So, if a key
employee leaves, we immediately seek to replace him/her.
But what if there
were a more effective approach to the situation? Suppose we looked at every problem/objecive as an opportunity to put somethng
better in place?
To simply replace a person, a policy,
proceeedure or bit of hardware or software that was acquired years ago may have
been OK some time ago, but today it represents an opportunity to make a
strategic improvement.
Our world today is changing faster than at any time
in human history. If we are going to be
successful in this new environment, we need to take on some new attitudes, new
skills, and a mindset that says to maintain the status que is to fall
behind. Every crises, every significant problem and every
major maintance action is an opportunity to create a more powerful,
strategically motivated outcome – something I call a “Leap
Forward’.
A leap forward is an action that
looks to the future and attempts to put in place a more strategically-designed
replacement. It identifies an initative
that not only solves the problem but puts something better in place, equipping
us to deal with a changing environment and preparing us for future success.
So, for example, instead of
just replacing a piece of software, maybe we should realign the way we use
computers. Instead of replacing a key
employee, maybe we should look at the responsibilities that person formerly
had, compare them to the future, and create a way to handle the future more
effectively. Instead of just resigning
ourselves to the same old way of relating to our boss, maybe we should question
the relationship between oirselves and our managers.
Remember, every crises, every signifiant
problem and evey major maintance action is an opportunity to create a more
powerful, strategically motivated outcome.
The
key is to think a layer or two deeper about the problem and the objective that
drives our action. We do that by asking
the question “Why” a couple of times.
So,
let’s say we lose a key manager. The
knee jerk reaction is to replace him/her and return the situation to the status
quo. Our objective, then, is to “Replace the person with someone new.” But,
suppose we stop and ask, “Why do we need to replace him/her?” We think, “Because someone needs to do that
job.”
And
we ask the question “Why do we need someone to do it ? What is it about the job
that requires a new person?” We study
the responsibilities and disover that half of the person’s time was spent doing
things that felt good to him/her but
that weren’t really necessay. So, we
ask, “Looking into the future, is that a better way to accomplish the essentail
tasks and to prepare for what is coming in the near future?”
Our
objective now becmes, “Develop the best way to handle certain current and
future tasks.”
That’s
a deeper objective than the starting point.
It will reach into the future and create a more harmonius set of
circumstances, be better for everyone involved, improve the likelihood of the
company surviving and thriving, and add to the company’s health and security.
It would be a leap forward.
When
we create a new and deeper objective, we
give ourselves an opportunity to adjust to the times instead of relying on past
decisions and returning to the status quo. It is one of the new skills successful people
will utilize to survive and thrive in our rapidly changing world.
Note: This concept is one of many principles and
practices designed to help people think better and be more successful in our
changing envirnoment.
Learn more here.
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