Make The World A Better Place One Organization At A Time: Choose Your Hard

Photo Credit: Ross Findon

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.           

The path of least resistance can lead to failure in many areas of life. Innovative ideas are often born out of the desire to change the status quo, sometimes for survival, sometimes just because it's the right thing to do for the people you love or serve.

Years ago, I was approached by a manager who worked for a large organization. He was extremely frustrated with his company's culture, which he believed was resistant to change, and prioritized maintaining the status quo over serving their customers better.

The culture was dominated by laziness, inertia, and an attitude of "it's always been done this way."

Whenever he brought up a new idea, he was told that "it would not work here," it can't be done, or "we don't have time for that here."

I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard those words myself over my career. Those phrases are the de facto standard before a good change in an organization finally occurs.

Not prioritizing impactful ideas for the benefit of others is a recipe for failure, boredom, and dysfunction.               

Organizations that don't embrace continuous improvement eventually fail, from cross-country teams to Fortune 500 boardrooms.

We were born to create, innovate, and improve things for those around us. In my mind, making things better for the people you serve is love for your fellow man.  

Back to my story.

After many discussions, strategic planning, project planning, and hard work with the above manager, we developed a new system that revolutionized and energized his organization.                                            

The system we created breathed new life into an organization and gave people hope. 

Always remember the value and capabilities of a team of people who are genuinely committed to changing the status quo for the right reasons. 

We all need to move out of our comfort zones into the innovation zone from time to time to improve lives around us for the better. 

There is no shame and no blame here. We have all fallen into that "status quo trap" for various reasons.                     

However, to improve lives, we must break out of that comfortable status quo trap and move to the land of meaningful innovation and change.       

Make your team or organization better today with new ideas to serve others better, no matter how small or big your group or organization is at this point in your journey. 

Whether you volunteer as a retiree, work full-time as a coach, work in a school, volunteer at church, or work in a Fortune 500 company, we can all make things better for those we help and serve daily. 

Change is always hard.  However, so is remaining in the status quo. 

As the image below says, "Life is never easy; it will always be hard. But we can choose our hard. Choose Wisely."

Solve problems other people shy away from to love and serve others well. Choose your hard.  Be a solution seeker for something greater than self.

Blessings, 

Coach Weber                                                                                                                         

Philippians 4:13

I saw this post on a friend's timeline. I did not see who the author was, or I would give them credit. Change is hard. Staying in the status quo is often just as hard and detrimental to us in one way or another.

Change for good.