Maybe this is extreme.
I don’t think it is, especially considering where we are as a country and a world today. Every business is in a position where it must consider how to best handle this challenge or it will cease to exist. With that said, keep reading – this post is intended to encourage you to keep looking around you for opportunities that wouldn’t exist without the difficulty we are in right now.
Let’s consider why this might not be an extreme, over-the-top thing to say. When you think about it, what does stagnation mean? I picture a pool of dirty, acrid, slimy water. No movement. Nothing living in it. Nope, not even algae. Or think about that orchid your friend gave you. No matter what you do, it’s dropped its flowers. It’s withered. It’s brown. It’s pretty easy to tell when something is alive and growing and when it’s dead.
Growing is the opposite of stagnation. It’s movement, learning, development, improving, adjusting, planning. These are all things we do when we grow, individually and corporately. But in business, growing doesn’t always mean getting bigger, although it does mean getting better.
This is a challenging statement: sometimes we think that it’s safer to stagnate. I don’t think we do this on purpose. We just get into a rhythm where it’s scarier to grow than it seems to be to stay put, do the same things, no matter what the results we get. Many companies succumb to this, and the result is a lot of frustration, financial loss, personnel loss, and, if left unchecked, failure altogether.
You might be thinking, My company isn’t like this. And maybe it isn’t. But please consider: what is the basis for decisions as they are being made? Are you seeing decisions that yield the same painful outcome over and over? How would you describe the morale of the company? How would you describe the environment? Stagnating doesn’t necessarily mean you stop making decisions. Maybe there’s actually a lot of ACTION – but does it yield growth and progress? Do you see employees engaged and empowered to make decisions? Or are they perpetrators of unproductive conflict and low morale?
In business, being dead may mean refusing to do anything differently. It may mean refusing to see reality. It may mean attempting a shift but sabotaging it eventually. All of these undercut healthy growth and yes, mean death.
This is particularly important in regards to the situation we find ourselves in today. With an unprecedented global landscape, many businesses and individuals are forced to ask how they can grow in and through the situation. It’s scary, it’s strange, and we aren’t allowed, in many cases, to just go about business as usual. I want to encourage you to see the potential today even in this space, difficult as it may be. How can you grow? What are the opportunities afforded to you and your business? What does this unusual situation open up for you that business as usual would have kept closed?
Activity: Consider your environment. If you were to draw a picture of a landscape, what would it be? If you want to actually draw a picture, please do. What do you draw? A desert? A spring? Mountains? Are there trees? How does this reflect your day-to-day experience? What might you do to have a positive impact (bring life and joy to the work you do)?