Habits & Their Impact On Successful Change

I run 5-6 times per week.

I have done that for 38 years.

I always run in the morning.

I have done it about 10,000 times.

When I run, I run around things. Like around a lake, a park or something I have looked up on a map.

I always run ‘against the clock’.

Why? – because I follow the habits that have been ingrained in me after close to 50 years in and around track & field stadiums. In a track % field stadium you run ‘against the clock.’.

It is just the way you do it.

I have never questioned it.

Challenge Habits and Reveal Awesomeness

This year, however, I decided to do things a bit differently.

I started to run ‘with the clock’. Yes, I know, if that is the level of my midlife crisis, then I am doing well. And yes, I do not have a midlife crisis ?? I just decided to challenge my habits.

How I had always run. ?

And I loved the experience.

Seeing things from the opposite direction revealed completely new things. Like statues I had never seen before. Trees that suddenly stood out in the forest, or the most marvelous views that had always been there, but I had never seen. Awesomeness!

“We Have Always Done It Like That”

This is not unlike what our clients experience when Innovisor enters their organization.

They have always looked at the organization from the same formal perspective.

They might even have run change in the same mechanistic way for ages. Yes, Kotter’s 8 steps is still around! Despite none of it leading to success they have not changed their approach to change.

“We have always done it like that.”

Just like, when I always ran ‘against the clock’…

A Bold Leader Arrives

But then a bold leader arrives, and dares to ask the question: "What if we did things in a different way?".

When they engage Innovisor and our lens on people, it means they suddenly see how people connect, influence, innovate and collaborate:

• How regions and affiliates are disconnected from headquarters? – and what can be done to connect them?
• How sales and R&D are not talking to each other? – and what barriers we need to remove to drive better performance
• How past acquisitions have never been integrated and an us & them mentality still prevails?
• How change programs still rely on those who have time or volunteer as change ambassadors? - Not the ones that the people look to for sense making
• How reorgs do not create any other change than a reshuffling of chairs as people continue to work with the people that will get the job done. Not the ones they are placed in the same box on the org chart together with
• Where they discover WHO the 3% that 90% of your people look to for sensemaking are, and what difference it can make, if they can ACTIVATE and ENGAGE them in their future endeavors

And suddenly successful change becomes possible!

In my case, I lost out on a lot of awesomeness during my morning runs for the past 38 years, but I am happy I discovered how to change it. From now on, I will run in whatever direction that will give me the best moments of awe on that day.

How will you challenge your habits?