Same Old, Same Old

By on February 8, 2015   /   Status Quo  

We’re stuck in a rut.  Every day, we go through the same routine.  We go to the same places.  We talk with the same circle of friends.  We order the same thing off the menu.  So, it’s no surprise when someone asks us how we’ve been, we respond and say ‘same old, same old.’  Because very little changes.  It’s a nice comfort zone, a known quantity.

This afternoon, I was at an event where the ice breaker was to meet someone new, learn a few interesting facts about that person, and later share with the group.  What amazed me is how reluctant everyone was at first.  Feet shuffled very slowly around the room.  Each paired group resembled 2 shy kids at a middle school dance.

But then something interesting happened.  Once the fear was gone and the first couple minutes of conversation complete, we learned we all had many things in common.  Which spurred longer conversations.  Facebook invites exchanged.  Connections formed.  All because we were willing to invite one new person into our circle.

Why is this so hard for us, especially when it’s not what we know, but who we know?  There’s no danger.  Nobody going to bite our head off.  At worst, you’re meeting someone who you don’t connect well with, perhaps differing personalities or beliefs.

Do yourself a favor.  Reach out to someone new on a regular basis.  Start easy, a friend of a friend, someone in mutual circles.  Or, someone you don’t recognize on an email chain.  The possibilities and values of new connections in this day and age should easily outweigh any fear of the icebreaker.

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How Often Do You Ask Why?

By on January 10, 2015   /   Leadership, Status Quo  

no-thanks-we-are-too-busyIn Zig Ziglar’s book, See You At The Top, he recounts a story about ham:

His wife sent him to the store for a ham. After he bought it, she asked him why he didn’t have the butcher cut off the end of the ham. “This old boy” asked his wife why she wanted the end cut off. She replied that her mother had always done it that way and that was reason enough for her. Since the wife’s mother was visiting, they asked her why she always cut off the end of the ham. Mother replied that this was the way her mother did it; Mother, daughter and “this old boy” then decided to call grandmother and solve this three-generation mystery. Grandmother promptly replied that she cut the end of the ham because her roaster was too small to cook it in one piece.

We can all relate to this story.  There are usually many processes setup at work (and our personal lives) where things are done a certain way because that’s how they’ve always been done.

As a leader, before you decide to make changes, you first need to discover and understand the reasons why a process exists in the first place.  There may be legitimate reasons (for example, compliance).  In these cases, blindly barging in and ripping out processes may cause more harm than good.  Understand first and change after.

If changing is the appropriate step, you might encounter some resistance.  Like the Ziglar example, we’ve always done it this way, and sometimes it’s hard to see there might be a better way.  This is the reason you need to have understanding of the background story – the why.  To achieve buy-in, you’ll want to talk your team’s language.  Help them understand your vision and how this will make their work easier.  Even better, if it’s a complete or significant overhaul of a process, include the team in the brainstorming and subsequent follow-up steps.  This will speed up the buy-in process since they will feel like they had a voice at the table.

Here are a few steps:

  1. Have a desired outcome in mind.  What are you looking to accomplish?  What is your end goal?
  2. Start asking why.  Why do we do it this way?  Don’t settle for the first response.  Probe and continually asking why.  Sometimes it takes 4 or 5 times asking why before you truly get to the root cause.
  3. Is the process still required in its current state?  Solicit feedback from those team members impacted.  What do they think?
  4. Collectively, use the King of the World process.  Is there an even better way to reimagine what you’re doing today?

It’s easy to get stuck in our daily routines because we’re too busy to think there could be a better way.  Every now and then, take a step back, and figure out exactly why you’re doing it.  You could end up saving yourself (and your team) valuable time, effort, and money.

 

 

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