There’s an old adage about consultants:‘How have you solved this challenge in the past?’. You inform them of you habits, strategies, and outlook, and they respond by saying, ‘Do that again,’ and sending you an invoice.
When faced with a ‘new’ challenge, take stock of how you’ve solved similar or identical challenges in the past.Then, inquire as to why you stopped doing that thing. Sometimes it’s because whatever you were doing had broken down, wasn’t right for the moment, or was a few notes out of tune.
And sometimes it just stopped working for no apparent reason at a specific time. However, it would work again today. For example, you may have done a lot of pivoting during COVID; after COVID, don’t forget to revisit what previously got you results. Timing is everything in good business. While surely no one asked for COVID, the lessons we learned were invaluable. Better still, some ideas that weren’t ready to come out of the oven can shine in full-force now that we’ve returned to relative normalcy.
However, you will frequently discover that there is not always a solid reason why you quit doing something that used to perform extremely well. Some factors influencing change include:
- You replaced old management with new hires.
- People grew tired of the routine.
- People began to work.
- People became disinterested.
Notice a pattern here?
Try it out right now. Identify a current issue and ask, ‘What were PEOPLE doing differently when we used to achieve whatever outcome?’ PEOPLE are at the heart of every business decision, triumph, and even failure. So have the conversation. See who works where, ask them what’s working, and devise your own ideas about how you can bring everything back in tune.