Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Leading Change

After participating in Bill Welter's webinar today, (he is the author of The Prepared Mind of a Leader: Eight Skills Leaders Use to Innovate, Make Decisions and Solve Problems) I was pondering the whole concept of responding to change in our businesses and our personal lives. In light of the number of changes unfolding on multiple fronts daily, the question arises, "What's relevant to me?" 

I believe we must become even better at knowing our values and priorities in order to allow in those ideas and possibilities that are most relevant and screen out the ones that have low relevancy. How do we accomplish this? It will likely look different for each of us, but on some level we must integrate our values and vision for the future into our everyday mind. 

For those of us who journal, we can note what is holding our attention. What are the topics you return to repeatedly? If you have regular reading either online or in the newspaper or trade journals, what sections do you turn to religiously? What personal interest stories grab you? And how do these interests relate to your top values?

Perhaps we begin by simply asking a few key questions:
  • How and why is this change relevant to me? 
  • How might it represent opportunity?
  • What can I do to understand the meaning behind the change and how it relates to my business?
  • What responses are called for, if any?
Bill used the example of Folgers Coffee leading the market for several decades, and not paying attention to the upstart Starbucks when it was making ripples in Seattle. If Folgers had responded  early in the game, the outcome might have been very different in coffee land. What is happening in your business sector now that might represent a huge opportunity? 

And the larger question may be, are we taking time to think about what's happening and reflect on what that might mean? Or are we so much in reacting mode that this kind of strategic thought doesn't happen?