At this point, you’ve lived long enough to know that change never comes without resistance. In business, the resistance can come from you or from your staff, your suppliers or even your family. Or, maybe your systems or processes make change difficult. Perhaps it’s a combination of all of these factors.
When is the last time you got a third party’s view to identify the true barriers to change in your company? What first steps have you provided yourself and your team? What is your personal vision and the vision of the business 1 year, 3 years, 10 years out into the future? Where have you become complacent and just except “ok” results as okay?
The first step in accomplishing change requires a mind-shift to understand that high levels of satisfaction can actually lead to complacency. A company without progressive goals will eventually falter, and when the status quo rules as a way to “keep the peace,” there is bound to be trouble eventually. As we all know, stagnant businesses fail and fold.
Tied to this concept is the importance of having a vision. If you don’t have goals, you lack vision for your company. Without goals, you will not progress or change.
Consider this formula for change: (D x V) + F > R
D represents dissatisfaction; V represents vision; F represents first steps and R represents resistance.
In order to change, dissatisfaction multiplied by vision plus first steps must be greater than resistance to change. In this formula, if your dissatisfaction level or vision equates zero, you’ll never overcome resistance to change because everyone will be far too satisfied keeping things “the way they have always been” instead of gravitating towards “what could be”.
“Astounded represents our emotions when we learned that of the 18 different strategies we had in place to promote our business, only three were actually effective. Once our lead tracking system showed us how poorly we were spending most of our marketing budget, we began to delete non performing spending of money and this method will continue to save us money year after year,”-CEO dry cleaners
If you want to change your company, you must amplify areas of dissatisfaction. This does not mean focusing on little gripes and complaints; rather, it means, exploit the areas where you can do better. Set goals, share your vision, and measure your outcomes. Once you’re focused on a better state, you can start working towards a new goal, and all you need is a “first step”.
Your Business Coach can help you determine what that first step, and those after, to insure you are on a path to least resistance, and highest payoff. We might debate, ask critical questions or raise concerns, but that is our job as coaches- to make sure you consider all angles and then move forward with an informed perspective.
