Combating Complacency
Sometimes I think I get lost in my own thinking that I begin making up terms like Defensive Complacency and Offensive Analysis. Let me help you with my definitions of these terms:
If we were all asking ourselves how can we make things better, on a daily basis, would either of these conditions exist? I get a lot of people don't like change, but what have we done in our society that has created an environment such as this? Everyone wants to not be miserable at work, but do we bring the misery on ourselves by not working to make things better? If I had more time I could fix that. If they didn't have me doing X it wouldn't be as big of an issue. The funny thing is that most of this is just an attitude. We can overcome most of this by our own thinking.
Rather than saying, “If I had more time I could fix that.” How about asking yourself, “How can I fix that without spending any time on it?” Or, “Maybe I can't fix it, but what little thing can I just start doing differently that will make a difference?” We all want the perfect new world where everything works as we want, but getting there is never an overnight flip of the switch, no matter how detailed the plan. How about instead start setting a vision of how things will look, not an exact step by step, just a high level picture for yourself. Think of it that there are 100 or 1000 steps that you have to take to get you there. Now, what is one step that you can take today? Do it, no excuses, you have all of the control you need.
- Defensive Complacency – The state of being content with how things in your organization are run, so much so that when someone questions things or believes that you can achieve more, you talk about the reasons it is the way it is.
- Offensive Analysis – The act of asking questions about why things are done the way they are in your organization, but done in a way that creates a sense of being attacked by the person being questioned.
If we were all asking ourselves how can we make things better, on a daily basis, would either of these conditions exist? I get a lot of people don't like change, but what have we done in our society that has created an environment such as this? Everyone wants to not be miserable at work, but do we bring the misery on ourselves by not working to make things better? If I had more time I could fix that. If they didn't have me doing X it wouldn't be as big of an issue. The funny thing is that most of this is just an attitude. We can overcome most of this by our own thinking.
Rather than saying, “If I had more time I could fix that.” How about asking yourself, “How can I fix that without spending any time on it?” Or, “Maybe I can't fix it, but what little thing can I just start doing differently that will make a difference?” We all want the perfect new world where everything works as we want, but getting there is never an overnight flip of the switch, no matter how detailed the plan. How about instead start setting a vision of how things will look, not an exact step by step, just a high level picture for yourself. Think of it that there are 100 or 1000 steps that you have to take to get you there. Now, what is one step that you can take today? Do it, no excuses, you have all of the control you need.
Comments
Post a Comment