Today is Ground Hog Day, although it may feel like it’s Ground Hog Day all year long in your organization. Every day, your staff is marching into work and doing the same things they were doing yesterday. After a while, the team goes on auto-pilot. Sound familiar?
How will you get ahead if you don’t move forward? And here’s the thing. If you are not moving ahead, you are falling behind. Another company will surpass your organization in terms of quality, product offerings and service. How else can you explain why some organizations that most of us have never heard of just a few years ago, are now the ones to beat? Speaking of “beat.” Take the brand “Beats.” Bose used to own the music headset market. Then came along Dr. Dre and his Beats. I’m still sporting my Bose Noise Cancellation Headsets while all the cool people are now wearing Beats. You can bet that I’ll be checking out this brand the next time I’m in the market for new headsets. In the mean time, I’ll have to borrow my fourteen-year old daughter’s pair when I want to look cool.
Here are some tips to get you moving:
Remove the words, “We tried that already,” from your vocabulary. Nothing shuts down new ideas quicker than someone who makes it very clear that your ideas don’t matter. Yes, maybe you did try it and it didn’t work the first time around. But things change. At the time, the timing may not have been right, so why not give this further consideration?
Shake things up. Try hiring people who don’t exactly fit the old mold and see what happens. I’m betting they will bring new perspectives and ideas that are simply too good to resist.
Reward failures as well as wins. Many a company (thing 3M) developed their most successful products based on failures. Celebrate failures as well as wins.
Encourage employee turnover-Some companies run their businesses as if they were the Hotel California. You arrive and somehow never leave. No employee turnover or extremely low employee turnover means that you are breathing your own exhaust. Most likely you’ve got people who have overstayed their welcome. Help them pack their backs and make room for new energy and ideas.
Punxsutawney Phil, the world’s most beloved and furry seasonal prognosticator, saw his shadow this morning (despite overcast skies), portending six more weeks of winter. There is not much we can do about it at this point. Luckily the same is not true for you unless of course you decide to do what you’ve been doing all along.
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