Who listens to the seat belt talk, when they sit down in a plane? I'm not sure, as Seth Godin points out in a recent article, there is anyone left in the world, who doesn't know how to put that clip into that buckle and pull low and tight across the waist? Yet flight attendants stand there with their favourite seat belt held at eye level and go through the spiel again and again and again. The airlines sight safety rules requiring the message be told ad nausea because you never know who might be on a plane for the first time. If you can get on a plane, the likelihood you arrived by car or have driven in a car, is high, and correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't a car have the same seat belt concept we are talking about on the plane?
We've all heard it before in companies and situations where change needs to happen and the myopic reply "but we've always done it that way" comes flying back at you. It's the easiest comeback in the world, to stay stuck in the middle where equilibrium is the most comfortable but where you have no opportunity for change, challenge or achievement. The race to the middle, the race to mediocrity and "not rocking the boat" has become the realm where individuality and creativity go to die. In today's uncertain times people have become even more conservative in their views and actions, and the hunker down mentality is pervading all sections of industry, sucking everything into the middle.
Yet this is the time to look for change opportunity. After all, successful business people and entrepreneurs didn't achieve only on sunny days when things were going good, everything was rosy and without turmoil. The current uncertain global situation will throw up new businesses, new entrepreneurs and new product and services that will surprise people who can't find their way out of the middle. What's holding us back? Inertia, cynicism, fear, futility, peer group pressure, legacy thinking and complacency keeps the list growing, holding us back from change and success.
The only things that engender change are chaos that requires action for survival or the spirit of the individual in authority, willing to show dissent, take responsibility and bring about consequences that lead to change. Finding all three qualities in company employees can be difficult but if you look at the leading companies of today, you'll find individuals who have pushed the proverbial away from the middle. Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Marc Benioff (Salesforce), A.G. Lafley (P&G) and Tony Hsieh (Zappos) have all disrupted their business models and that of their competitors because things don't always need to be done the same.
You have an opportunity to bring about change in your work place, even if it is only in quantum amounts. Likely you have a better picture of what your company can do better, because you are closer to your clients than the boss, you are in the field every day and you encounter the change required to bring about your future success.
"Clowns to left, jokers to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle with you".
What are you waiting for?
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