Bodies In Motion

It’s safe to assume that Sir Isaac Newton wasn’t thinking about the subtleties of human behavior when he developed his Universal Laws of Motion, but a few recent conversations have convinced me that the principle of inertia exerts itself into every aspect of our lives.

I started thinking about this recently following some painful discussions with a couple of people close to me. In separate conversations, each described the challenges they were facing in their personal life, and how they felt stuck in a pattern of behavior that had left them unsatisfied. They both recognized the dangerous path they were on but felt powerless to change course. Somewhere near the end of the second conversation, I had a thought that brought me all the back to my high school physics class.

“A body in motion remains in motion,” I said.

In the simplest of terms, inertia refers to an object’s resistance to changing its velocity. A body at rest tends to remain at rest, and a body in motion tends to remain in motion until acted upon by outside forces. My friends were bodies in motion, and both were looking for outside forces to change their trajectory. This got me thinking about all of the ways inertia showed up in my life – both personally and professionally – and the forces necessary to overcome it.

As described in the conversations with my friends, inertia in your personal life can show up as repeated patterns of behavior. When someone talks about being in a rut, they’re talking about inertia. More dangerous, still, are the patterns of behavior that lead to a life that spirals out of control. This is the inertia that my friends were feeling.

In your organization, you can spot inertia in employees who seem to be going through the motions. Often, these are productive members of your team who never seem to reach their full potential. They are unchallenged in their current roles, so they show up as unmotivated and unremarkable. Inertia has them in perpetual motion, spinning but not moving forward. You can also find inertia in your organization’s policies and practices. It sounds a lot like, “because we’ve always done it that way,” or “that’s just how we do it.”

When your employees or your organization reach this point they are in a rut, and are dangerously close to spiraling out. Without some external force, your employee is going to leave and your organization is going to be left behind.

As a leader, it is your responsibility to be that external force.

My method of applying this force is through a process I developed that also calls back to those days in physics class. My LIFT Process is a way to identify, analyze, and overcome the obstacles in your life, and it is a great way to exert your power on the places in your organization where inertia has set in.?

? Look and Listen –Don’t worry about answers at this point. Your goal here is to gather as much information about the challenge at hand as possible. Get input from all of the stakeholders involved. ?How does the employee feel about their current role? What do your customers think about your organization? It is also important to examine your own thoughts and judgments to help identify areas where old patterns of behavior have set in.

??????Identify The Problem – Get past the symptoms and to the root cause of your issue. What is this pattern of behavior (or policy or practice) costing you? More importantly, how is this pattern benefitting you? When you understand the cost and the payoff, you’re getting closer to what needs to change.

?? Focus On Solutions – Visualize what success looks like to you, and understand what conditions are within your power to change. Trying to alter external events, attitudes, and conditions is pointless. Focus and apply your energy only to areas that you have direct control over.

? Take Action – Make and execute a plan of action. Track your progress and hold yourself and your team accountable.

None of us are immune to the forces of nature, and inertia is a powerful one. You can, however, exert your own forces to change the trajectory of your life and your organization. My LIFT Process gives you the power to do it.