People in most organizations today
have some pretty ambitious objectives to
meet each year. The waters are choppy
and the wind in their faces is strong,
which means that hitting the numbers
takes a lot of hard work. But hard work by
itself is seldom the answer. It also takes a
lot of different work. I frequently ask
people if they think they can meet their
goals for the coming years by continuing
to do their work the way they are currently
doing it. Without exception, the answer is
no.
This is one reason why organizations
need more leaders. They need people
who will cease the ongoing complaining
about how outrageous goals might be
(and some indeed are beyond reason),
and start rallying people to figure out what
can be done to accomplish them. Isn't it
ironic that so-called un-achievable or
impossible goals are accomplished all the
time? Somehow, people do figure out an
answer.
In another article in this occasional
series, we will share with you some of the
proven to-do items that enable people in
organizations to be more effective in
Challenging the Process and
implementing innovative ideas and
methods. Be mindful how demanding this
work can be, because it is seldom easy to
convince other to let go of that with which
they are comfortable and accept
something different.
In the meantime, there are a couple of things
you can immediately start practicing as a
leader, in order to lay the groundwork for
helping other embrace the need challenge the
way things are done. First, do not allow new
ideas to be immediately discounted with little or
no consideration. Intervene by prompting rich
and open dialogue to ensure that ideas get a
fair hearing. Second, never allow invalid
assumptions