Think of a typical day or week.
Chances are that you have certain routines that you follow almost on auto pilot.
Now I guess to some extent we all thrive on predictability.
Of course from time to time you have a situation where things are not going to plan.
This might be within a project, a team, a function, an organisation and even personally with regards to something like your career.
The natural tendency if you are driven and achievement focused is to just work harder, give a bit more effort in the hope that you will somehow stumble across the answer.
Sadly this rarely works.
Why?
Because when you are facing a challenge of significance, thinking in the same way results in you taking the same type of action and getting the same sort of results as you were getting previously.
So what’s an alternative?
Stop
Working hard on the wrong thing is not going to change anything.
Faced with a challenge the best thing you can do is stop, step back and start to ask focused questions.
For example.
What’s the biggest issue at present?
What options do I have?
Which option is likely to have the biggest impact?
Creating that space will result in you really thinking things through and making a different but informed decision.
Accept
In reality you are not likely to hit a home run or get everything right first time.
Even if you don’t get it right first time what you will have is progress and insight.
Adjust
I was having some building work done recently.
Watching a skilled tradesperson in action is fascinating.
What you notice is that getting the core structure in place is pretty straightforward for them.
The challenge is in making a series of small adjustments to make the components work as they should.
How often do we adopt that strategy in business and in change situations?
Probably not as much as we could.
In truth change is hard. At the same time being willing to change your thinking and actions can significantly impact on the results you achieve and the progress you make.