The key reason why people or businesses fail to achieve their potential is that they fail to change.
One reason why necessary movement never occurs is really obvious, but it seems to sit in our blind spot, never to be addressed. Quite simply, we often don’t change because we’re just too comfortable where we are and don’t want to go outside our comfort zone.
Think about a time when we achieved something that was very challenging.
The chances are we may have worked for a boss who we respected, but didn’t like, because they regularly challenged us; making us feel uncomfortable.
Or, we may have had our back to the wall and were so uncomfortable with our situation it forced us to change.
My point is that if we are feeling too safe, we will never really make any progress and as Mark Twain said: “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.”
Real creativity, innovation and change are more likely to take place when things are uncertain, chaotic and unstable, but crucially within a safe environment.
For example, running a brainstorming session where participants are encouraged to come up with mad, implausible ideas usually results in new solutions emerging that are truly innovative and workable, but which crucially wouldn’t have been thought of without the introduction of some chaos in the first place.
If you’re keen to make a change in your business or personal life, here are my tips:
• Ask for direct feedback from people you respect but maybe don’t like – your friends will often tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear
• Learn about something not directly related to your day job
• Spend more time with people who you feel are the most opposite to you
• Embrace eccentricity in others
• Take more risks and accept things will go wrong
Often our resistance to change is linked to our quest not to make mistakes, not to look foolish or a fear of the shame associated with a less than perfect outcome.
Hopefully the words of Albert Einstein will help you take the occasional step into the unknown – “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
Peter Welch is head of sales and distribution at Bridgewater
