I deal with change on a daily basis. This includes helping businesses make meaningful changes to their processes and technology stacks. I have found that people and companies consistently face the same challenges. In short, permanent change does not stick. So, before you introduce any change to your team, any new technology, any new process, a new direction, you have to ask yourself three questions in this order. Skip any one of them and you will likely see people fall back into old habits.
First, what state is my team in? What state is this person in? Are they ready to receive? You can’t build on a depleted foundation. In football, if I was to throw to a wide receiver and he’s not ready to catch, what good is it? My investment as a quarterback is wasted. Do an energy audit. What’s building your team up? What’s dragging them down? The right inputs produce the right outputs every single time.
Second, ask your team, what do they believe about themselves? You know, a little mental trick I tell myself just to get to the gym and succeed is I tell myself I’m an athlete, not because I’m competing, but because that identity fuels how I show up as everything that I do from being a father to being a leader. So what story is your team telling themselves? If they believe the goal is possible, even just a little bit, you’ve got something to build on. And if they don’t, you either change the story or you change the team.
Third thing: strategy. But only now. Paint the picture, break it down into the smallest steps. In baseball, you wouldn’t tell a first baseman just to go catch the ball. You tell him exactly when to step towards the ball, how to time what’s being thrown at him that produces results, that shortens the distance, and gets the out. Those directions, that level of detail produces results, but none of it works if you skip step one and step two. In business and in technology, we are always introducing something new, a new system, a new process, a new AI tool, a new direction. That never stops.
So run through these three steps every single time one just a reminder one what state are they in get them ready to receive to what are they believing get that story aligned and three give them the strategy to execute get those three right in that order and I promise you, your breakthrough that you’re looking for becomes possible. Let’s grow further faster.
