The Certainty of Misery Often Trumps the Misery of Uncertainty

That’s why “the way things remain” is the popular alternative to changing the way things are.

Author Mable Hoffman had this observation: “The status quo sets on society like fat on cold chicken soup and it is quite content to be what it is. Unless someone comes along to stir things up there just won’t be change.”

Although the world is changing at breakneck speed, I’ve encountered leaders who tend to push back hoping that how they do things today will lead them successfully into tomorrow. The tendency is to protect and defend how they do what they do rather than challenge how they do what they do to create more desirable outcomes.

People come to accept this as “just the way it is.” Some big-wig corporate person figures out the best of way doing things, creates intricately designed procedures in a vacuum, passes them down to the employee to implement, and attempts to motivate with either fear or “carrots.” (Not like I’ve ever done this or anything).

We are in dire need of a new mindset. . .

Psychological studies, research, and casual observation teach us that sustaining control of “what is” dominates most professional thinking.

Venturing outside the norm presents the possibility of discomfort, change, or failure. This is where I find the certainty of misery often trumps the misery of uncertainty, or potential for failure.

It is what it is BUT what it is, is a fast track to irrelevance.

Cultures are often designed to produce learned helplessness. It doesn’t matter what we do, things will always be what they are and there is nothing I can do to change them.

Sad!

I sigh deeply at this prospect. . . It simply doesn’t have to be that way.

Companies don’t take risks, people do.

Companies don’t disrupt the present, people do.

Companies don’t stretch to new heights, people do.

Allow people to experiment with new ideas, expand their control, encourage new and innovative approaches, and revolutionize their work experience by making it possible for people to do what they love to do every day - because this is how they are wired. 

I have a few Energetic “E” descriptors that help me Ensure continued relevance in a disruptive world:

Begin with renewed Exuberance, Energy, and Enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever accomplished without them. Do not read on until you feel it. . .

Then, become Enraged with Learned Helplessness. What is, is not what has to be. Get over it. Get beyond it. Never think that way again.

Encourage Enormous Experimentation. Give people permission and promote a culture of trying new, untried, even outlandish approaches. Closed-minded people close minds — unlock the padlock of restrictive thinking.

Enlist Everyone in Creating a Fresh Future. Empathetically involve 100 percent of your team in determining what the future could look like. Capture every micro, macro, all-encompassing opinions, and options.

Enthusiastically Execute. New ideas are wonderful but worthless without brilliant, unwavering, determined execution. Empower people to act. Now. It’s not easy but mandatory for success.

I concur with Tom Peters when he said: “It is easier to kill an organization than to change it.”

Questions to Consider:

What is the most important thing you can do to create a new, forward-looking mindset on your team?