A Mindset for Navigating Change and Chaos

For those of us who have grown up in tech we quickly learn that continuous change is just a part of the rhythm of the corporation. In addition to innovation, when you add in mergers, acquisitions, and a change in business strategy there are many days people have no idea from one day to the next what their next role might be.

I learned very early on to adopt a mindset based on Bruce Lee's Be Water philosophy with a riff by applying it to the corporate culture. The idea here is to develop the mindset that we are all water. Water is the most powerful compound in the universe and when obstacles fall in your river you keep flowing around them, you will flow around the rocks and you will find other streams and rivers to flow with which will bring even more energy to your river.

I have shared this philosophy with many colleagues through the years and here are a couple examples of colleagues who applied this philosophy. In this first example which happened early in my career at HP over 20 years ago now was when I worked with Jeremy Joseph. At that time part of Jeremy's role was to bring in sales tools to support the sales teams. Jeremy had been mandated to bring in a specific not-ready-for-prime-time sales tool that the sales teams were also required to use. The sales teams became frustrated that they were being asked to use this buggy tool and the rumor was that the decision maker who selected this specific software was a neighbor of the executive of the not-ready-for-primetime software company and the reasons for selecting this software were strictly personal not based on the quality of the tool.

Jeremy identified a much better sales tool that was solid, bug-free and ready for primetime. He asked for my advice on what he should do and I said to Jeremy, "you need to be water, water is the most powerful compound in the universe and it will wear down your obstacles. Just keep going and introduce the solid sales tool to every sales team, one team at a time, until you have introduced it to every one of them and have the sales organization demand the solid sales tool." Most people would have given up. But Jeremy started bringing the solid software into the company and he just kept finding new paths to share it with more sellers. Jeremy followed my advice and it worked and the buggy software was tossed and replaced with the solid tool.

Steve Emerson a Director of Outbound Product Management for ServiceNow embodies the “be water” philosophy. Before joining ServiceNow, Steve worked in corporate IT for over twenty years. He loved the ServiceNow product suite and the ServiceNow company and culture so much that he set his sights on becoming a ServiceNow solution consultant. The only problem? He had no presales experience. Every time he applied for solution consulting roles, despite his two decades in IT, he was told no because of his lack of presales experience.

He didn’t let that no stop him. He took each “no” as “not now” and created a plan to ensure he landed the role he aspired to. He studied the craft of presales by interviewing successful people in his network, reading, and watching videos. He applied these skills, and within a year, he had achieved his goal of landing a presales role at ServiceNow and is now a very successful Director of Outbound Product Management for ServiceNow.

This story is a perfect example of being water. He didn’t let the no stand in the way of his dreams. He found a way to navigate around the rocks, the obstacles to get to his goal. He built relationships, he upskilled himself, and he persevered.

In the corporate world, we face a lot of noes, such as the following:

? No, you don’t have the right experience for this role.

? No, we can’t allocate resources to your project.

? No, that initiative isn’t a priority this quarter.

? No, you’re not ready for a promotion yet.

? No, we don’t have budget for that training program.

? No, you can’t work flexibly outside the office.

? No, that’s not part of your job description.

? No, we’ve always done it this way.

We have to be creative, persistent, and adaptable - like water. We have to build relationships, gain skills, and find alternate routes and alternate rivers. We have to keep our eyes on our goals and not let obstacles or naysayers divert us. Because the thing about water is that it never stops. It keeps flowing, keeps moving, keeps finding its way.

Inner Fire on Amazon - an Amazon best seller:

https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Fire-Protecting-Corporate-Burnout/dp/B0DKWJS8TD