Monday, 28 June 2004

Repeating the Same Action and Expecting a New Result?

Engagement at meetings and excitement about projects is down. A number of key people are leaving. The passion that sparked our initial conversations is waning. One of our clients is at a turning point with their organization.

A number of never-been-tried-by-us suggestions were thrown around in a recent strategy session. Most of them immediately dismissed with a quick “that may work for some organizations, but not us.”

We talked about a number of approaches that could provide more value to their customers and more energy to their organization – from repositioning their offering to bringing on some lower-level individuals to assist management to really fulfilling on their unique selling propsition.

The resistance to change – when survival is most in question – is not unique to organizations. BusinessPundit struggles with the issue of a resistance manager and Seth Godin discovers the same issue when offering suggestions on improving presentations .

We at Working Pathways offer 2 suggestions for approaching a new strategy:

  1. Have you and your team answer this question, “What’s the worst possible outcome?”Answer it for your current situation and any potential strategy. New directions are never as forboding as existing strategies.
  2. The most successful, maintainable strategy is doing as little as possible