The thing we forget (or deny) about business is that it is inherently messy. And the more you are trying to do something that your business hasn't done before, the messier it gets. Maybe you're genuinely trying to be more customer centric. Or you want to restructure a service or a department or even the whole company. Get your people to be more innovative. Articulate a vision of what you do that people really want to be a part of. Grow, scale, diversify, partner, redefine, redirect, connect... or just get stuff done that should be soooo much easier than it seems to be.
The issue isn't the mess itself—the mess is where the juice is. The issue is in how you and your people deal with the mess. How well you surf it instead of either sweeping it under the mat or trying to tidy it up. How well you can define and communicate where you want to go and why that matters, how well you can inspire people to follow you into the ambiguity, and how safe you can make them feel in the process so that they can get on with what they need to do. And the only thing that's certain is that a one-size-fits-all process or Surefire Seven Step Formula isn't going to work. No matter who came up with it.
To navigate that vision or mess effectively means you need to be able to look at it clearly and simultaneously see both the forest AND the trees, as well as the clearly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty. To then turn the whole thing on its side for an entirely different view again and get a whole bunch of busy people with their own agendas and viewpoints to do the same. Which can feel nigh-on impossible if you have your head buried in the day-to-day.
Growing your business, navigating a frustrating conundrum or shifting gears in your career requires a different mindset than maintaining business as usual. Success creates complexity. And applying your expertise to your own business (let alone life) can seem ironically impossible.
I love helping businesses navigate their messes to create something brilliant. (Much better than working with my own messes.) So
The issue isn't the mess itself—the mess is where the juice is. The issue is in how you and your people deal with the mess. How well you surf it instead of either sweeping it under the mat or trying to tidy it up. How well you can define and communicate where you want to go and why that matters, how well you can inspire people to follow you into the ambiguity, and how safe you can make them feel in the process so that they can get on with what they need to do. And the only thing that's certain is that a one-size-fits-all process or Surefire Seven Step Formula isn't going to work. No matter who came up with it.
To navigate that vision or mess effectively means you need to be able to look at it clearly and simultaneously see both the forest AND the trees, as well as the clearly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty. To then turn the whole thing on its side for an entirely different view again and get a whole bunch of busy people with their own agendas and viewpoints to do the same. Which can feel nigh-on impossible if you have your head buried in the day-to-day.
Growing your business, navigating a frustrating conundrum or shifting gears in your career requires a different mindset than maintaining business as usual. Success creates complexity. And applying your expertise to your own business (let alone life) can seem ironically impossible.
I love helping businesses navigate their messes to create something brilliant. (Much better than working with my own messes.) So