Doctor, Doctor...

The patient says, “It hurts when I do this.”
“Well don’t do it.” the doctor replies.

Or better yet.
The Doctor says “In order to heal this injury correctly, you need to do these very painful exercises 6 times a day, or else lose the ability to use that limb properly again. No questions, no excuses. period.”

Philosophically these are two very different examples. The first one is a typical response from management when an employee complains. The second is a prescription to a problem, which you want to take a wager on what happens there?

What is common, is that both are the polar opposite ends of the same problem. Something needing to change to improve the situation. Yet the results seemingly are always the same. Nothing changes. It gets lost somewhere in the middle between the two sides.

Either the doctor just ignores the patient’s problem. Or the patient ignores the doctor’s solution (intentionally or unintentionally). What we have here is a series of broken processes. Because when you distill everything down, it is a process.

In our experience, a company either has issues with process to identify and fix problems. Or they are really good at figure out the problem and answer, but struggle to implement change. In either case, there seems like there is always a valid excuse to support the reason why it is working.

In this day and age, it seems the vast majority have problems implementing change, the rest have simply given up. It is not worth the fight.

To an executive, a business owner, or a manager...something needs to change and it needs to change right now. The company has been hanging on by a thread for an unbearable amount of time, either sink, swim or fly. Thankfully, there are a whole lot of smart people that have figure out that there is a science called, change management.

It is what you need to learn in 2010. Or you might as well fold now and save yourself a lot of grief.


No Easy Answers

A regional home improvement center in California has a slogan, “The answers are out there, and we’ll help you find them.”  I find myself quoting this sound bite from time to time.  I just like how it fits into conversation when I feel like I’ve solved something.  The saying is true of hardware and fertilizer, but overly simplified when it comes to sales, business, or humanity. 

I feel like most “Sales Blogs” are a vending machine of advice. 

Motivation press button A5 and look in the drop slot.  Advice on Cold Calling press D2. How to Set Goals, now that’s a favorite, press C4.  

Those that think there are easy answers simplify the problem at their own risk.

I sure wish that reading a catchy blog title got me out of my sales slumps, my routine ruts, gave me a shot of motivation, or got me the presidents award.  If it were that easy then political blogs should have given us a unified country and world peace by now. 

Those that put in the time with a fresh perspective or outside help can make changes and get results.  Change is not easy.  It can however be very worthwhile.  When a general practitioner needs a specialist opinion we get referred.  It is the same in business.  There will be times when specialists need to be called in to evaluate and give outsider perspective. 

There are times when professionals make it look too easy. So easy that we feel like they are taking our money and running. But try your hand at it yourself, the countless hours we waste staring at the problem that seems impossible to actually solve. Sure the instruction say just plug the cable into the back of the BluRay player and then to the TV. We stare at it, afraid of breaking it. The professional on the other hand, just dives in and in seconds, problem solved.

That is the crux of it. Everyone one has opinions, but few are brave enough to jump in there, take a chance and fix the problem.