This Changes Everything

It's said that the only constant in the Universe is change, and it seems that changes are happening around us more quickly than ever before.

But wherever there is change, there is opportunity.

We can choose to be victims of change, or to find the opportunity.

And for UK businesses, the pressing need to begin looking for opportunity in the face of major challenges is no more evident than now, following the UK’s referendum decision to abandon the European Union. 

The seismic tremor released by the shock Brexit vote will reverberate across British business for months and probably years as an uncertain future rises before the business and political community.

Navigating that fast-approaching future of uncertainty will require adjustment, ingenuity and dogged persistence – and more importantly, a shift in perception of possibility and opportunity.

American writer Eric Hoffer once wrote that “in times of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future,” while “the learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”

Those businesses that understand how to shift from the current trading environment and learn to adapt and position themselves for a different future will survive and thrive more easily than those that hope that Westminster and Whitehall can negotiate a business-as-usual treaty with Brussels. 

The UK inhabits a political and economic world that very soon will not exist in its present form. What shape it will take is anyone’s guess right now, but it will be different, and the economic upheaval that may occur as a result of abandoning the ‘European experiment’ is likely to be dramatic.  

Already, there are warnings of a possible recession, and the governor of the Bank of England has suggested the country will suffer “economic post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Chancellor George Osborne has given up his fiscal policy of eradicating Britain’s deficit and returning to a surplus by 2020, such are the immediate ramifications of the decoupling of the UK and EU. And he is already planning to reduce the corporation tax to encourage overseas investment in Britain.

Adapting to new circumstances quickly is going to be the primary focus for preservation of profits and progress.

American best-selling writer and futurologist Alvin Toffler, who died last month, spoke of the need for people to adapt to change by learning new skills. 

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn,” Toffler wrote of society’s reaction to technological change.

Britain is going to need relearn its ways of doing business with Europe and, more critically, be willing to change its habits. Most human behaviour is habitual, and those that recognise which habitual behaviours of business will need to change will deal best with the approaching climate-change of pan-Euro trade.

It requires creating a new paradigm to adapt to the new trading culture.

And the place to begin is the attitude of leadership. To paraphrase one famous industrialist, “whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right,” is an attitude that will separate the winners from the losers. 

When drastic change occurs, it’s how we choose to frame the challenges that reveals the solutions. How we think delivers the path to pursue.

And the finest question is often the simplest.

WHAT’S POSSIBLE?

What is possible here, inside of the ensuing chaos of enforced change, that might lead to a better business climate once the dust of demolition has dissolved? 

It’s the questions we pose at times of change that open up the possibilities we do not initially see in the drama of the unexpected moment.

As one of my favourite writers, Napoleon Hill, said, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” There is opportunity in adversity. But finding it requires the right mindset.

We only see what we look for. If we are looking too hard at the problems, we might not see the solutions and opportunities.

Britain’s history as a trading nation shows it has the capability to prosper no matter how arduous the times, but it does require the right attitude and approach. Difficult circumstances call for difficult choices and decisions.

And a change in mindset and paradigms.

*****

If you want to learn how to change your personal or corporate paradigm, the answer is in “Thinking Into Results,” the corporate leadership programme for achieving better results: Thinking Into Results for Leaders

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A video from Bob Proctor on the smart approach to change:
In Times of Change - The Search for Meaning

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Stuart Doughty is a personal development trainer, helping people and teams to deal with change and develop the right mindset for success.
www.stuartdoughty.com