“The window for change is closing”
I came out with this phrase earlier this week when talking to a client I am working with to make changes to some deeply ingrained ways they run their business. As with so much, those patterns had slowly and gradually evolved over time, but however they happened, they are now “the way things are” and are not best for the business, their staff or their clients.
Why hadn’t they changed? Inertia, humans tend to like structure and dislike change.
However, with the world having been forced suddenly into many changes with Covid-19, as we emerge out of lockdown there are many opportunities to look at doing things differently, often radically different.
But, and it is a big but, when patterns are deeply ingrained, many people will want things to “go back to the way they were before”, so it is key to act fast, hence my thought: “The window for change is closing”
If you can see radical changes you want to make, make them now, soon.
In order to help you with that, let me give you another insight linked to this.
Create a constraint that make you change.
As a business leader you will likely know what to do, but won’t do it quickly as there will be so many other things to focus on as you emerge from lockdown. Do that, though, and you will miss the window for change, and if that happens people won’t accept the changes if you make them later on.
So, a tip here is to create what my friend Steve Chapman calls a “creative constraint”.
Here is one idea for a creative constraint.
Today is June 25th.
Set a firm deadline to develop a strategy for and to then implement that radical change you know you need to make.
I suggest August 23rd, which gives you 60 days.