The Pit of Despair

It’s been a tough week. Don’t get me wrong, there’s lots to be positive, grateful and optimistic about, and I love these types of attitudes in the team. They are even more valuable in times of challenge, which has been most of this year and now gearing up for 2021. A lot of my discussions this week have related to reflecting back on 2020 and looking forward to 2021 I think one of the takeaways I’m grateful for is authenticity. I’ve seen more of it this year than ever before and I’ve challenged myself too to be a more open, authentic leader. Which is very uncomfortable for an introvert I must say. This means calling a spade a spade and no fake cheerfulness e.g. ‘everything’s fine’ when the house is on fire. So in the spirit of authenticity I know we are currently feeling the strain. But I’m also determined to convert whining and complaining into solution-focused action. As much as I’m opposed to fake optimism, I also abhor constant pessimism. And the magician tendency; ‘look over here’ without talking about the real issues. When sh* gets real and times get tough the only way to succeed is to work together, support each other, and focus on the human factors, the rest will work itself out. If we lose sight of what’s really important, we will fail, and as much as I embrace failure as a learning opportunity, one also needs to be prepared to deal with the consequences. On another note, my 18k really hurt and I’m a bit nervous about 19k this weekend. Managed to get through chaff- and blister- free though which is a plus. And so far not having to walk or stop and generally holding around 6min kms. The goal at the moment is doing the kms, I’ll build speed later. Family is good albeit exhausted, and the kids are mostly healthy aside from a new exciting rash on Harvey which has emerged and hopefully turns out to be nothing. The joys. 1 more week to go until a 2 week break woohoo!

This week I wanted to share with you my mockup of the classic change curve which inevitably features the pit of despair. I don’t know if you feel like we’re in the pit of despair now, but its typically a part of any chance process. On the path to improvement, things often get worse before they get better. Apart from the axes labels and pit of despair in the below the other text is mine to suggest the things we might place on our change curve – what would you add or remove? I would LOVE you to mockup your own change curve and send it back to me. As I spoke about last week, change is hard, but if it was meant to be easy then it wouldn’t be worth it. Just as a captive needs to let go of the Stockholm-syndrome-esque affinity for what is familiar even if its terrible, we too must be prepared to let go of the familiar to realise and accept the objective truth, which is often hard to see without perspective if we’ve only known a certain way for so long. I could add so much more into the below that has challenged us this year; resource shortages, increased workloads, and some of this year have unfortunately touched real tragedy and even death in our respective personal lives. All of these things add up.

Also this week I remind you of a typical continuous improvement cycle which we should if not already be incorporating into the way we work. E.g.:

-        This might work let’s try!

-        What’s the best way to give it a go?

-        Here we go we’re doing it!

-        Well how did that go? What worked, what didn’t? what else could we try?

-        Repeat

And my suggested read for the week…

This is a 3 year old post but still very relevant:

How Coca-Cola, Netflix, and Amazon Learn from Failure (hbr.org)

Keep well and please prioritise that which matters most! 😊