A Model for Thoughtful Change: The First Element is Letting Go
I work quite often with organizations and leaders who are trying to bring about changes in their companies and teams.
Perhaps it’s just time to move in a new direction?
Or maybe the marketplace is demanding a level of innovation and creativity to maintain growth and viability?
Leaders with entrepreneurial spirits have the ability to make changes quickly and without much deliberation, but that can also spell trouble and wasted resources if there are others involved.
I like to use this Model for Thoughtful Change when I’m working on helping them to create compelling visions and strategies for exploring that new business horizon. For the next few columns, I’ll offer some thoughts about how you might be able to implement these elements for Thoughtful Change, whether it’s with your whole company, your team, or just you!
1. Let go
2. Listen deeply
3. Honor your inheritance
4. Describe the new vision
5. Embody/act upon the new vision
The first element of Thoughtful Change is to let go of what’s no longer working for you, what’s tired or exhausted, what’s holding you back or impeding your progress and growth. This means that you’ll have to get really honest with yourself and perhaps even make some tough decisions. How can you identify what you need to let go of? See if any of these things make sense to you as you reflect on what’s happening in your business:
Just the idea of this element makes you tired. For example, a conversation, a topic, a person, a program, or a product line that simply isn’t working, hasn’t gotten better or improved, or you just feel like you’re hanging on to it without any sort of return on investment or betterment.
Your intuition tells you that you need to let go. If someone like me, from the outside, came in and asked you, “what do you think are the two or three obstacles to having the best year yet (or meeting your goals/vision or creating the kind of business or team you want)?” and you came up with 2-3 items, these are likely related to something you need to let go of. This can be a mindset or a practice. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to fire your whole team or ditch all your products and services!
Others have told you that this tired conversation is getting in the way. Sometimes, when we get fixed on a particular way or process, we get stuck and we can’t hear the signs around us that it’s time to move on. Create a new sense of openness for others’ suggestions by just getting curious: what if we did that? or what if we didn’t do that?
Letting go is sometimes the very thing we need to do, and it’s often the most challenging. Maybe you feel like you’ve invested time, money, energy, sweat equity, or heart and soul into some practice or idea that was once so promising? Sometimes, you just have to cut your losses and let go. Once, I was holding on to an idea that I just knew was a good one: it had the potential to create a huge impact on my clients, it was feasible to carry out, and it had great earning potential. I worked and worked on this, engaged others’ help, and invested thousands of dollars. In the end, it was so stressful and unsatisfying, and it wasn’t creating the results that I wanted. It was so disappointing, and worse, I couldn’t let go of it! I said to a trusted advisor, “I’m so worried I’ll make a bad business decision by letting this go and giving up on this now!” His answer was powerful and life-changing: “Libby,” he said, “being miserable is a bad business decision!”
The most important reason to let go of something isn’t just about releasing old baggage, which is freeing in and of itself, but it’s also because you must make room for the new Thoughtful Change you want to implement. You cannot go out onto a new horizon dragging the old stuff that’s holding you back.
You must make space for the new!
Please let me know if this resonated with you! Don’t hesitate to reach out directly or leave a comment below. The first step is right here, right now, and remember, you don’t have to do it alone!
