Tag Archives: change

What A Paleoanthropologist Can Teach You About Business

Last Thursday, September 10, 2015, a group of international scientists announced the discovery of a new hominin species in South Africa. The name of the species is Homo Naledi. Homo Naledi, New Species

This is obviously ground breaking news! And so what?—you may ask. What does this discovery have to do with you, and with making your business more profitable?

The lead paleoanthropologist, Lee R. Berger, said this about the discovery, “I do believe that the field of paleoanthropology had convinced itself, as many as 15 years ago, that we had found everything—that we were not going to make any new major discoveries, and that we had this story of our origins figured out. I think many people quit exploring; they thought it was safer to conduct science in a laboratory or sitting at a computer. What the new species Naledi says,” Dr. Berger concluded, “is that there is no substitute for exploration.”

You do not have to be a paleoanthropologist to learn from Dr. Berger. What he is pointing to is our tendency to think that everything has already been discovered, created, and figured out. Berger has challenged us to continue to explore—to not give up and think it’s all handled—that we have seen it all.

How can I apply this information to my business?

Begin by questioning your assumptions. (What about your business do you think is already figured out? What does everyone know about your business?)
Then look to see if your business practices are stale, uninviting, and old. What about your business should be upgraded and re-imagined?

This type of questioning can lead you to new discoveries and new ways of providing services to your clients. It also leads to change, but I am not talking about changing for change’s sake; I am talking about inquiring into what you need to change, about being willing to change if you can see that the change could benefit your clients, and about implementing changes that will cause new results that are spectacular.

Why Not Change?

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You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.

William Faulkner

There is something about change that sometimes makes us cringe and hold back. I think that it is the unknown and our lack of belief in ourselves that keeps us from accomplishing what it is that we want to accomplish—if only we could make that first step. We know we are capable of changing but we hold back unless something calls us forth. Often we let our fears, or imagined fears, keep us from moving ahead. Sometimes we just have a first reaction of “no” for any change that is required. Whatever the mechanism we have developed for holding back when change is present, it is time to call it out and see if it really serves us.

I recently talked to a potential client who had a different protection from making a change. Her well-rehearsed protection is “changing everything all the time”. She is an idea machine with an idea a minute. She reminded me of a hummingbird flitting from one flower to the next. She would touch on something then immediately move on to next great idea. No wonder she was frustrated and unable to make a go of her business. Her business changed every other day. After listening to a seemingly endless list of ideas, I realized that she didn’t really like change, so to actually change she would have to pick one thing and just do it.

I agreed with her that the list of ideas was excellent. In fact, I pointed out that I could see a theme in the ideas that pointed to her towards a vision for her business, and from a vision for her business she could start with one offering from the list of ideas. She really didn’t like the idea of just choosing one and after some indecision she reluctantly chose one idea. We then made a little plan on how she could implement that one idea. The plan included how long the implementation would take, what the simple steps were needed to achieve the goal, how much she would charge for it, and an estimate on how much she could make. Then I asked her to just follow the plan for two weeks and see what happened. Part of the plan was to complete one step a day and report back to me every day as that step was complete.

You can probably predict the outcome of this plan. Yes, it worked. She stayed with the plan and began to meet people who really were interested in what she was doing. Within a couple of days of focusing on the project she met people who were interested in using her services. She was excited that her idea was well received and decided to follow through with providing the product. She changed her way of being and it took courage to do so.

I don’t know if the change will last. It really doesn’t matter because now she has tasted what it is like to stick with something. I think this will be the beginning of a new way of being for her.

If you are stuck and know that change is required to move forward, please give me a call. I would love to hear from you.

Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net, Miles Stuart

Do You Know One Reason Why You Resist Change? It May Surprise You.

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What makes people resist change? This comment from one of my clients made me think:

“Ah, resistant to change – who, me? My first thought about change is that I am too lazy to change. I’ve done something for so long I don’t have to give it much thought to continue doing it. If I make a conscientious decision to change something, I have to get out of my comfort zone, I have to give it more thought than I normally would and I have to hit up against not knowing how it will turn out. You’d think that if something I’d been doing hadn’t been working out well for me, I’d be more than willing to shake things up a bit, but human nature being what it is…”

But what if the resistance to change is simpler than that? What if it is simply the avoidance of the domination of the change?

If change is involved, then the ways that you have done things will have to be re-thought, you will have to put your attention on the steps to take to change whatever, since it will be new to you. Your old way of doing things has been comfortable; they required a minimum of thought. Now YOU will have to take concrete steps to make change occur. Change begins to dominate you, and YOU hate to be dominated. So, what do you do? You avoid the change. By the way, all of this reaction and inaction is not conscious, it’s was programmed into you when you were a little, tiny person. Probably about 2 years old. That was when bigger people started telling you “No” and you didn’t like it. Remember?

The best way to have change be easy is to first ask yourself: Am I resisting the domination of change? If the answer is yes, then ask: What’s in it for me? Get clear about the benefits of making the change. Are there any benefits?

Do you have things in your life that you have been putting up with, rather than changing them? Think about one thing that you would like to change, yet haven’t. See if you are avoiding the domination of change. Ask yourself: Is there anything in it for me—really—or is it just a good idea, my own or someone else’s? The answer may surprise you.

photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Are You Resisting Change?

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“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”
Legendary Basketball Coach, John Wooden

There you are looking at your results, knowing once again, clearly you failed. The results are there staring at you, pointing their fingers at the failure sign above your head. What do you do? Once you have determined that something in your approach has to change, do you make the change? Probably not. If you are like me, you most likely try the same thing again, hoping you will have a different result.

What is it about change that we resist so much? I did some research. Lisa Quast, in Forbes, summarized it succinctly:

Fear of the unknown/surprise
Mistrust
Loss of security/control
Bad timing
An individual’s predisposition

Bingo! If you have 3 out of 5 reasons residing in you, you resist change. So what are you going to do about it when you know that change is calling you?

I suggest that you do some work using the above 5 factors to be your guide. Set aside some time and grab some paper and begin to write down your answers.

Ask yourself:

What am I afraid of?
Am I surprised about the change required? And why?
Who do I not trust about making the change? And why?
What about this change makes me feel insecure and out of control?
How does the timing of the change affect me and my business?
How am I about change in general? Do I always resist change? Why is that?

Allow yourself time to reflect on the answers and you may be surprised by them. When you are honest with yourself, you can develop a strategy for the change that won’t be so jarring. You will feel in control, and you can plan the timing of the change. Who knows, you may even begin to like change.

I look forward to hearing your comments about this topic and what happened when you took a look at the change by answering the questions above.

What Does Drucker Have To Do With My Life?

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We have been discussing the brilliant work of Peter Drucker. He was the leader in the development of management education and invented “management by objectives”. He wrote dozens of books about business and management. Drucker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. Our discussion is based on Drucker’s 12 Keys to Success (http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericwagner/2013/05/07/entrepreneurship-according-to-drucker-your-12-keys-to-success/).

I received a thoughtful comment from a reader. The nugget of the comment was now that he is retired he doesn’t have anything to manage except his life. Of course, that too is a big job.

Perhaps, you too are thinking the same. What does this have to do with me? I am retired now and business is behind me.

I think that the principles of Drucker’s 12 Keys to Success also apply to living a successful life. Perhaps if you apply these keys to living a life you love, you may find that your life is more satisfying and meaningful. Please try it on and tell me where I am wrong.

Today let’s look at Keys 6, 7, and 8 with the viewpoint of how do they apply to my life.

Key 6: “Measure innovations by what they contribute to market and customer.”

Let’s look at this key in reverse. How do the changes that you make in your life contribute to you? I am substituting the word “changes” for the word “innovations”.

Each change we make to our life is our innovation. We do this to live a more satisfying and perhaps more comfortable life. You can ask the question: Does this change contribute to me or am I doing it just for the sake of change? If you drill down in the question you may find that most of changes that you make don’t make one iota of difference to you. You are changing something for the sake of change. If that is so, I respectfully say: Stop It!

Secondly, do the changes that you make contribute to your circle of influence? The phrase circle of influence is your market. Customarily, we make changes without a thought about how that change affects others. I think that is a mistake. When you make a change, consider if it is a contribution to others. If not, you may want to re-consider the action.

Key 7: “Often a prescription drug designed for a specific ailment ends up being used for some other quite different ailment.”

You planned for something that you created in your life to be useful in a certain way. It wasn’t, but instead is an inspiration to someone that you hadn’t even thought of! Instead of being disappointed, it would be more valuable to celebrate that you made a difference.

Just because it didn’t turn out how you thought it would, it still turned out.

Key 8: “Innovative ideas are like frogs’ eggs: of a thousand hatched, only one or two survive to maturity.”

And that is the key to living a life well. We try things, they didn’t work. However, you don’t stop trying new things, failing and trying again. This way of living—finding in failure the need to try again differently—can bring more joy and satisfaction to your life.

I am looking forward to hearing from you in the comments below. Please share about the changes that you have made and how they have contributed to you and others. Bonus points if you also share where you have failed and what you did to turn it into a win.

How To Open Your Box

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To continue last week’s discussion, we were asking “What it is that really extraordinary people bring forth that allows them to operate outside of the boundaries of their psychological (ontological) box?” — the purpose being to give us equivalent access.

Look and see for yourself. There have most likely been times in your life when things just worked, when life seemed almost magical, when you made exactly the right moves at exactly the right time, when other people suddenly appeared to assist you somehow at just the point when they were needed. Granted, for most people it seems accidental — seems like it just happened. But maybe not. Maybe you brought something special to the party. And more importantly, what we are after here is, how can you cause this state of being in your life and your work?

What conditions are present that allow people access to miraculous living, and not have their ambitions and dreams be either just more of the same box sized futures, or else another bunch of airy-fairy nonsense?

First, you will see that they are 100% committed to something that cannot be accomplished unless they re-invent themselves as bigger people. And that takes courage. The kind of courage that can be with not knowing how, with being uncertain, with being afraid.

Second, they have at least one person who knows that they are big enough to do it and who is there to remind them of that fact when they themselves forget. That’s why smart people who are up to big things have coaches, be it a business associate or a professional coach. Mohammed Ali had Angelo Dundee; Roger Staubach had Tom Landry; Joe Namath had Bear Bryant.

Third, they somehow keep going when reality screams that they should quit, or change course. Remember what we said last week: you invented that old reality anyway, in response to some very pressing conditions. Now it is time to invent new ones!

Photo courtesy of Unsplash- Vee-O

I Am Sorry

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Change is certain. Peace is followed by disturbances; departure of evil men by their return. Such recurrences should not constitute occasions for sadness but realities for awareness, so that one may be happy in the interim.
I Ching

Several years ago, I was the subject of a campaign of hate fueled by nasty rumors, gossip, and even some threats. The result of this campaign was being socially “black balled” by a large influential segment of the community. Naturally I was devastated and felt misidentified and maligned. I also felt very alone.

That very event was a catalyst for my growth and development. I made wonderful new friends, deepened my spiritual path, and gained the confidence to build two new businesses.

Until yesterday, that past was mostly forgotten. I had moved on. Then I had lunch with an acquaintance from the that time. Lunch was delightful and stimulating. I was so happy that we re-connected and as we asked for the bill, she said, “I need to apologize to you.” She was quiet for a few moments. Then she said, “Please accept my apology for believing the gossip and rumors about you.” She said she was now puzzled as to why she ever gave the gossip any credence at all.

This was one of those huge moments that come into our lives sometimes, both for her and me. It takes a big person to apologize for perpetrating harm, real or imagined, on another. It takes courage to apologize—and its scary.

I was a little stunned and quiet as all the old hurt and isolation re-occurred for me. Then I said, “Of course, I accept your apology, thank you”. The moment was over, the damage undone, history once again tucked away in the past. We both left that lunch looking forward to the next time we would see each other.

This woman’s courage and bigness has inspired me. I am writing this blog today with the intention to inspire you too. It is my goal to encourage you to apologize to whomever you think you may have hurt. I promise that you will discover yourself to be a bigger and more complete person.

In the space below, please share with me times when you have apologized for wrong and what happened. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

To Succeed Do This — Not That!

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“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”

― George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession

Many of you have seen this quote before. At first glance, it doesn’t seem that remarkable does it? However, with some further examination, you might find, as I have, it is a pointer to how to live your life, and how to create what you want in your life.

I think it’s one of the things that we sometimes remember. And then we forget it. It is as if we are cast out into the raging ocean in a shaky rowboat without any oars. We then become a victim of our circumstances instead of the creator of them. When we become the victim, all sorts of events thwart our intentions. Everything we try seems to go wrong. Everything appears to be against us. We think we are doomed. Our view of the future becomes dark and gloomy with thunder and lightening. We then become right about how hard it is and that nothing is going to work out—and nothing does work out, which makes us even more right. This is a vicious cycle. AND, we can, if not prevent it, at least reverse it.

This is where George Bernard Shaw enters the picture with his wonderful quote.

We can make our own circumstances. When we begin to act on our own behalf, all sorts of openings begin to occur.

I have seen this reversal happen with many of my coaching clients. Sometimes, it takes them, first of all, making a commitment to be coached. Often, setting the first appointment begins the shift of circumstances. Why? Because they are then committed to shifting their circumstances rather than being victim of them. The next big shift happens when they begin to talk to their coach about their lost dreams and they are listened to seriously and respectfully. With a coach, someone who is committed to the idea that something can work, the client can succeed. The client experiences being whole and complete and not their rotten circumstances. They begin the process of being the success they know themselves to be. I have seen this happen many times with my clients.

And how about you? Have you triumphed over a set of rotten circumstances? What happened? I would love to hear your comments about this topic.