Schlagwort-Archive: Change

From nothing simply nothing comes

Common sense tells us that anything adapts to what already is there. Spheres, not cubes, come out of a sphere. In closed systems, it is unlikely that something new will emerge on its own. Except: energy is added from outside. The same is the case in human communities – working groups, departments, and firms. If something has to be changed, it needs a push to get momentum. From nothing simply nothing comes.

The following aspects outline some stimuli that the leaders can give in terms of energy supply.

  • Adaptability
    The persistence in the existing of individual people needs a framework that provides the necessary space for the new. In an appropriate atmosphere that gives employees the chance to make things flexibly on their own, to cooperate across borders and to apply new ideas without any effort changes happen. The customer’s needs are adequately addressed that way. If then the willingness to try new things is encouraged by stress-free, fault-tolerant attitudes and openness, collaborative learning takes place. Thus, all are able to adapt.
  • Participation
    Once you understand that the group creates many more opportunities than individual geniuses, you have to take care to put the team in the position to make decisions at the point of action. This requires that the relevant information is available and that, at the same time, all know that they can and are allowed to contribute positively as well as to plan jointly. This puts the team at the center – with all its objectives, distributed balance of power and group processes. The development of appropriate skills is crucial for the employees, as well as for the leaders, who must give up part of their ego. The contributions through participation of all members cumulate to a larger sum than the sum of individual results.
  • Consistency
    The interaction of many interests leads naturally to a wide range of solutions, which even contradict each other in the worst case. For this reason, conditions have to be created that reduce the divergence of the parties to a healthy degree. The well-known fish that stinks from the head has an important exemplary function. Above all, the desired manners have to be put on paper. This applies to the culture with its convictions, values ​​and the collaboration styles, as well as for the established ways of making decisions and agreeing. To ensure that the described behavior is also put into practice, the executives have the responsibility to take ownership of their expectations and to continuously act accordingly. In addition, they affect personally the employees by consistently expressing the common perspective and by coordinating the involved people accordingly. The consistency of statements, behavior and decisions prevent resistance.
  • Mission
    Eventually the clarification of the mission is the formal element in order to be able to cross the door to the new. The formulated snapshot of the future that describes the targeted final stations, shows the raison d’être of the company. Everyone will then develop its idea of the way to the destination. In the interest of joint collaboration, concrete milestones define reference points, which will again and again realign the forces to the common goal. The more the vision, the mission and the strategy are sharpened for the target group, the clearer they lead the employees. The formulated and accessible mission reduces the interpretation space to a minimum.

Bottom line: Even if the world seems to alter on one way or the other, change that is to be done more quickly or more fundamentally, needs efforts in advance. All those affected people must be able and be permitted to adapt themselves. Platforms for participation have to be created. All aspects of the business must be harmonized in a way that uncertainties concerning the right approach are avoided. And above all, a clear direction must be given. However, this has changed nothing yet. But without these aspects changes are almost impossible. Responsible for creating these basic conditions, which are an effort in advance, is the leadership team. Thereafter the actual change follows. From nothing simply nothing comes.

There are always at least three alternatives

Many will know the following situation. You have concrete ideas for the annual target planning about what you want to do in the following twelve months – e.g. the innovative project, the oversea assignment or the advertising tour in a neighboring country. The boss has unfortunately different plans – e.g. administrating the customer data, preparing the move into a new location and the revision of internal documents. Besides the wide area of compromises, there are always at least three alternatives that result from your desires and the proposals of the boss.

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Which basic option do you have?

  1. I manage to convince my boss.
    It seems unfair that the superior does not assign the desired tasks to you. It is perhaps only because of the fact that he does not know your ambitions. As long as you do not try to convey your own wishes comprehensibly, you cannot expect that these come true. Clarify the three reasons, why exactly you are the right person for the innovative project. Show your abilities that qualify you for the assignment overseas. This includes for example the mastery of foreign languages or personal experiences in the country of destination. Put these arguments into the balance, if you want to go on an advertising tour in the neighboring country. Convey your ambitions in such a way that the superior understands the future benefits that he will achieve as soon as he gives you the task. Only if your point of view is known, you can expect that the boss acts accordingly. Make efforts to regularly demonstrate your strengths. Then your desired door will open.
  2. I change my expectations.
    At best you adapt. Finally we are the ones that have full control of ourselves. However, this does not mean that you let yourself control by somebody else and pass the choice over your own fate to other people. But some tasks are more attractive, than they seem at first sight. The experiences that you can make, when you administrate the customer data, can by far exceed the superficially missing fun of the innovative project. Also the new contacts that result from the relocation can bring in the long run more advantages than the assignment overseas. The general knowledge that you acquire by revising the internal documents, exceeds the insights that you can collect with the marketing tour. At first sight you apparently give something up. In fact, you win valuable new options by adjusting the own expectations.
  3. I change the job.
    The first two points represent the two poles black and white. But life happens in the grey area between the two. However, as soon as you find no compromise that appeal to you AND your boss, you still have the third alternative – you separate. Take your needs seriously. If you do not convince your boss and you are not convinced by any of the offered alternatives, then you may be in the wrong place. You will quickly notice that you get considerably farther, when you search consequently for a new challenge. Do not hesitate to change the job, when you find something else that pleases you. You do yourself AND your boss a favor, if you untangle the unsolvable knot.

Bottom line: If both parties can not give up their point of view and ‘both-and’ is not possible, there is still the third alternative. You can avoid the unsolvable decision, by simply separating. The frustration that evolves, if you avoid the third alternative only because you postpone it, the damage will be bigger than the change that you have to face.