In the age of the expert economy, it’s easy to look at others and feel like they’ve got it ‘going on’. Who knows, you may have thought this about me…and much of the time I do … and then I don’t … but not for long … because I prioritise skills that have me working at my highest capacity. I never stop investing in the things that make the greatest impact on performance and results.
It’s not my systems.
Nor my processes.
And it’s definitely not my technology
It’s mastering the skills that are available to all of us! The ones that enable us to communicate effectively, to educate, to be responsible for our emotional state, enrol others in a vision and move a project forward.
Imagine if organisations chose this as the way forward? Think how differently technology would be embraced, how systems and processes would be harnessed, how teams would be liberated to deliver great work.
Sadly, they don’t. Since the 1980’s industry, government and business have chosen to spend vast sums on infrastructure, systems and processes while giving scant attention to the untapped potential of human beings. I’m not arguing this was an unreasonable approach, but after decades of doing the same thing to produce the same result, I feel it’s a breach of trust for leaders to continue investing in this single-focused approach.
“Very rarely do I find a client struggling over the practical implementation of business strategy, or sales techniques, or a marketing plan. Mostly it’s the icky, intangible stuff that sits underneath and we largely ignore it.”
The uplift in productivity and efficiencies generated by a team who are trained to get clear, be responsible and communicate honestly is guaranteed to take any business from stuck to purposeful and profitable. I believe it’s time for leaders to release old ways of thinking, to set aside judgements and acknowledge that “i don’t know’ leads to ‘we know how’.
Will it be uncomfortable?
Yes, but so what! Nothing awesome gets created within the confines of our comfort zone and it’s time we do more than pay lip service to this well-known idiom. It is time for action!
Starbucks copped losses for 9 consecutive years in China before discovering this to be true.
The stories of others can inspire us, but success comes from tapping our own bottomless creative well to find our own unshakable truth. Only then do we transform the experience of life to revolutionise our own business results.
Hone your skills and develop the tools with us ‘Changers’. Tune in to The Change Room podcast and join us in the The Change Room Podcast Group where we’re creating the space for exactly this change.
