Start at the True Beginning

Process is not as important as what you’re trying to do.

Every client was different, but everyone was the same.

They wanted to change their situation and resolve their problem fast. The fastest way was often a whiz-bang technology or streamlined process, reorganization, or some other big, bold action. They’d hired us to tell them what to do and how to do it efficiently, effectively, and as fast as possible.

Nothing has changed.

You have a problem. You want to fix it fast so you can get to that goal and then the next one and the next one after that.

You investigate, network, research the options, choose your course of action, and go.

Sometimes the new way helps and sometimes it doesn’t. An incredibly large and successful U.S. packaged goods marketer went down when it implemented its whiz-bang boom solution — as in unable to ship, unable to reap a single benefit from a costly, epic investment. Ultimately, it sold itself to a rival rather than close down entirely. {Said corporation’s history has been sanitized and is known only to those who watched its death throes in jaw-dropped horror.}

Disaster is not guaranteed — and neither is success when you implement change.

However, before you embark on any change, know what you’re trying to do.

Turning around falling sales, building a brand, enhancing profit, and improving the world through intelligent stewardship are not true goals.

Ambitions can be powerful, motivating, and sparkly, but they are not goals.

Before you charge off to accomplish something, make sure that you are focused on your true goal.

Ask yourself:

• What do I want? This requires deep consideration. Is what you want a reflection of what you believe you deserve, need, or will make you happy?
• Why do I want it? Ask why as many times as it takes to get to the point where you can’t answer it any further. Keep asking like a small child who is not satisfied with the answer when they ask why the sky is blue or why the dog died.
• What difference will it make? Am I willing to do whatever it takes to achieve my goal? Is this goal worthy of your time and investment? Is this goal responding to the market, to your boss, or to what you think you should be doing? Are you playing as large and as brilliantly as you can? The answer to why will shape what you do to accomplish your mission.
• What results when I accomplish this goal? How does it set me up for further growth and development? How will I know when I’ve reached my goal?
• How will I acknowledge my accomplishment? If you’ve done something genuinely transformational, it deserves celebration. Change is hard. True change is even harder and rarer.

As change agents, we were hired to change environments, processes, organizations for success.

Most often, we walked into a situation where no one wanted to take about what the situation truly was or where they genuinely believed the market was going or could go.

We were hired guns to do what they’d already decided to do, expert in implementing new systems and ways of doing work. Most often, the changes were minor, mincing steps forward, but often they were changes for the sake of change, for feeling like things were better only because they were different.

Thinking deeply and working together on the ultimate goals is the only way to bring about genuine transformation. It starts with thinking and learning, discussing and arguing and agreeing and learning some more.

It takes time.

It takes telling the truth and pressing forward through habit and expectation, assumption, and the way that you think things ought to be.

Start at the true beginning if you want to get somewhere truly different.