Three Challenges

 When you have done everything the same way for so long, the difficult part isn’t knowing what you need to do, it’s making yourself start to do it. Recently someone sent me a text message, and I just wasn’t ready to respond to it. I think I’m usually pretty good at responding to text messages, but this one was different. I had to really think about what I wanted to say. I couldn’t just go with the first thing that popped into my head. So, I waited, then I waited some more. I had waited so long that now no matter what I was going to look bad. I forced myself to put it at the top of my to do list and I even threatened myself if I didn’t get it done that day. Yes, I got it done, but it didn’t go smoothly. The issue was that I waited, I didn’t take action. I’m afraid that is where I am at with work. It’s the fourth quarter, the time to make adjustments and take action was long ago. If I don’t do it now, I need to understand that the people who have been patient, will finally run out of patience and leave. If they do, that is completely on me.

Taking Action – Challenge #1

The first thing I need to do is get some feedback. What are the challenges or issues that everyone is dealing with. I need to be able to figure out what is a real issue and what is something that might not be a team issue, but something that I need to work out with an individual. What are the things that are slowing everyone down? What am I doing that is making the jobs of other people more difficult. Once we know what the issues are, what do they think the answers are? That is one of the most interesting parts of working on a team. No matter what your title is, sometimes they aren’t looking for you to have all the answers, they are asking you to listen to their ideas. If I am being honest, most of the time the team has better answers than an individual.  Get all the feedback you can and look at what is actually possible to do.

Taking Action – Challenge #2

The second thing I need to do is to create a system. I need to make sure that a process is in place that everyone can follow. When I was a kid, we had choose your own adventure books. It looked like a regular book, but whenever a decision came up, the reader got to choose which direction to go in and turn to a certain page. If you wanted to attack the monster, go to page 75, if you want to run from the monster go to page 82. I want everyone to have their own version of a choose your own adventure book. If this is what happens, do this. If this is what is happening than you should do this. Everyone should be able to look at the current situation and be able to see what they should do. If everyone knows the system that is in place, no matter what happens, everyone should know what to do. Right now, it seems like everyone has too many options they can take. The good news is that they keep picking an option, the bad news is that usually they could have picked three better options than what they actually chose.

 Taking Action – Challenge #3

The problem with not taking action for so long is that once you actually start taking action no one believes you. They think it’s just the flavor of the week and it will soon pass. I need to find a way to get some buy in. Not everyone is going to buy in right away. I just need a few key players to jump on board. If I can just get a few people who would be willing to try it, I can get some momentum. I need to get some quick wins on some low hanging fruit. I need people to see that their ideas are being heard. If people know they are being heard, that will help out with how long the process is going to take. It would be nice to see some changes overnight, but it’s going to take some time. Where can I get some quick buy in?

In Conclusion

The first step can sometimes be the hardest. I feel like I’m standing on top of a diving board, and everyone is waiting on me. No one can move until I jump or climb down. It’s cute at first to see someone standing up there. At some point it’s no longer cute and it’s bringing everything to a halt. People have stopped being patient, it’s time to jump!