I read a recent Harvard Business Review article on 12 ways to get people to change and I was going to respond to each of the 12 points in the article and then I realised I’d be saying the same thing 12 times!
Change doesn’t happen because something is done on the outside, it happens when people get a quiet mind and have a new thought on the inside, or rather an insight into the situation. So change doesn’t happen because of these 12 programmes, it happens despite them. Whilst it’s tempting to and often attractive to look for complexity, for something to be universal it has to be incredibly simple, like gravity. And so for any change programme to work it needs to be really simple.
Problems only exist when we don’t know what to do and this is when we have a busy mind. Quieten the mind – and this is its natural state – and clarity emerges as does a way forward. Multi-step programmes, changing beliefs, values, cultures, operations, or structures just keeps a mind busy and stress, anxiety, frustration at the forefront. It’s like constantly shaking a snow globe. Leaving the snow globe alone allows the water to clear and clarity to emerge.
And there is a really simple way. And that’s that we create our experience via thought moment by moment. And it’s not what we think that’s important, it’s the very simple fact that we think that’s important. Thought only has power when you put energy behind it. Without energy it disappears, only to be replaced by a new thought. And it’s that new thought that can lead to successful change programmes.
Remember, we are always only a thought away….