HOPE & DESPAIR
February is almost over and you really wanted to “up your game” in 2013, right? Or maybe you didn’t even make an attempt, since you’ve become cynical about the whole “new-year-like-a-fresh-sheet-of-paper-analogy.” Depending on your past experience, it’s either exciting to “fill the paper,” or depressing to even pick up the pen, because you’ve tried and failed so many times (typically by March – right?). What’s the problem?
A COMMON TRAP
Although there are many ways it can go wrong, one of the biggest traps that pre-determines failure is having too many low-level, “disconnected” resolutions. The “sad story” of many organizations and individuals (including myself) often goes like this: they eagerly brainstorm all the “activity” that needs to be done…..then, “magically,” under the pretense of ambition, turn the entire list into resolutions or objectives…..because, after all, it’s all “very important”…..and, of course, it’s too painful to decide not to do something. Right? Sound familiar? Here are the typical consequences:
THE TYPICAL CONSEQUENCES
- It doesn’t get done. I don’t know how many managers I’ve told “head-on” that it’s impossible to tackle 30 initiatives at the same time (loss of the “choose & focus effect”). The typical response in January is: “we’re going to try anyway” or, if they’re very clever: “we’ll just group them into 4 families to make it look like less.” Either way, the final response in December is:
“how did this happen to us again?” It’s the definition of insanity and delusion. I’ve been there, done that. Don’t do it! - It’s demotivating, because it’s too “micro” and disconnected. Realize that real improvement areas are broad and systemic, since they typically cut across multiple areas of life or organization. However, the listing- and brainstorming- process tends to chop up these areas into “micro-activities.” While making them bite-sized and doable, it disconnects them from the “energy source,” i.e. the greater goal (“context effect”), and from other critical actions (“synergy effect”) that are necessary to keep you inspired/motivated and bring about real sweeping change.
So what’s the remedy?…..we’ll get to that in my next post! In the meantime, I really want to hear about the pitfalls you’ve experienced that cause resolutions to fail (first-hand accounts are always the best!). Remember, it’s impossible to fix something you don’t understand.
Pictures via Compfight:
°Florian, Zach Klein
Yes, I agree. This goes back to the discussion we’ve had on the importance of living according to your priorities and making them “dictate” your vision. It provides amazing clarity for decision making but still sometimes makes saying “no” painful.
Great post Johannes! I really love lists but I find that I give everything on the list the same priority which has created both family and work tension. I also have a tendency to leave the ‘big rocks’ (Personal: God, wife, kids / Professional: development, growth opportunities) off the list which means I don’t give them the right level of importance. Looking forward to hearing your ideas for a solution.