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Life is like a traffic jam

There are times when despite your very best efforts you just don’t seem to get anywhere.  For reasons beyond your control, you are forced to mark time.  Perhaps customers are not paying you on time, maybe key appointments are cancelled, you can not get access to the resources you need, be that people, credit or technology.  One moment you are motoring down Life’s highway, next you have ground to a halt. 

Like all traffic jams, sometimes they move along quite well and don’t last too long, other times one just find yourself parked on the motorway literally going nowhere and not even knowing what is wrong.  I find that if you can find out what is happening and you know if there is anything you can do, or whether you just have to wait for someone else to do something helps.

Doing nothing goes against our nature, this suggestion that we should surrender, and there is in fact, nothing we can do, so the only area for us to change is our attitude.

At present, despite my very best efforts, I am not getting any sense of forward motion.  I’m not necessarily worried by this but it is a far from comfortable sensation.  The usual metrics for business success no longer apply here, it is a bit like being in the Arctic Circle and having a compass… When you are out walking and you are lost you basically have three options:-

  • Sit down and wait for something to happen that changes your situation
  • Go back and try and retrace your steps (and start again another time?)
  • Press on to the best of your abilities

In business you can cut-back, bring in outside ‘experts’, try something new, or just keeping ‘pluggin’ away.’  If you are a fisherman, once you have tried all your usual tricks, and gone to the best places you know, if you still haven’t caught anything, you have to decide whether to just keep at it, stay home for a few days and wait for the water/weather conditions to change, or go out hunting!

I’m interested to hear whether you have encountered similar situations and if so how you have dealt with them and what the results were…

“What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack in the ground underneath a giant boulder you can’t move, with no hope of rescue. Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn’t been good to you so far, which given your current circumstances seems more likely, consider how lucky you are that it won’t be troubling you much longer.”    Douglas Adams

“Most of the time it was probably real bad being stuck down in a dungeon. But some days, when there was a bad storm outside, you’d look out your little window and think, “Boy, I’m glad I’m not out in that.””    Jack Handy

 

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 12th, 2009 at 12:51 and is filed under Business Change, Personal Change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Life is like a traffic jam”

  1. Ron Davidson says:
    12 July , 2009 at 13:34

    Hi Richard – I’m lucky, or maybe I’ve developed my own way of dealing with this experience.

    I think one of our problems in our developed society is that we tend to live in the future; planning, setting targets, schedules, success criteria and so on. However, as an aside, this is not even learning from the future in sense that Otto Scharmer offers in “presencing.”

    So while I have to plan for the future in terms of work, projects etc, I recognise and try to be fully aware of myself in the present.

    And that means, if things are quiet, I use that quiet space to reflect, to make sense of what has been happening, to learn from it and then turn that into the future activities. Soon you begin to realise that you can’t get enough of that time. There is not enough time for that personal and professional – that practitioner learning.

    So the traffic jam is a present – a gift – to enjoy the clouds, the trees, the scenery, music on the radio or from the CD player, or to actively pursue a short moment of reflection. To learn from our practice and use that learning to improve our practice.

    And here I am – stuck on the on-ramp! I shall just finish reading my copy of “Process Consultation” by Edgar Schein and see if I can learning something.

    Enjoy the present,
    Ron

  2. richardderwentcooke says:
    12 July , 2009 at 14:03

    Ron,

    Firstly, welcome to the Change & Stuff Blog; I hope this is first of many such contributions.

    I agree with what you say and in essence, I do the same thing. That doesn’t mean it is easy though and it also depends what is at stake. Waiting for something to happen in, say, ones garden, is very different, to having to wait for something to happen in ones work (if that is how you pay the bills)

  3. Ron Davidson says:
    12 July , 2009 at 16:37

    Yes I will look out for future opportunities to join in.

    I appreciate what you are saying. I’m privileged to have a full post so keeping the cash flowing steadily is not so much of a concern, although that is no longer a guarantee.

    But it can be very exasperating even in my situation, where we have a management that is so steeped in command-and-control, that now times are changing, they are beginning to realise…
    In 2003 I was able to secure a place to study for a research degree. (I might have related this to you already.)
    I offered to study the barriers and obstacles as the company changed its working model from a product orientation to a service one. This was in 2003. No interest! We know how to do this!
    Cutting a long and unpleasant at times story – I’ve been in demand quite a lot this year!

    Perhaps the Masters in Change Management and my research has placed me ahead of the company needs – ahead of their time. Perhaps I was not skilled enough in selling the service. Or perhaps I did not establish the emerging issues well enough. It has certainly cost me a lot in internal position and role. Despite a lot of effort – it has been a long wait, and a costly one.

  4. richardderwentcooke says:
    12 July , 2009 at 18:11

    I’m sure this is one of the bigger challenges for most of us Ron.

    I suspect our ability to wait, to pause in a postive spirit, is in inverse proportion to the stakes.

    I think it is tough being an internal ambassador for change; I have been there and think I still have the t-shirt somewhere. I ended up choosing to go external.

  5. Cornelis de Maijer says:
    12 July , 2009 at 19:31

    Hi Richard,

    I like to think what you describe is just ‘normal’…I too want to move always forward and see the results… However: Last week I went to my other favorite country and made some great progress in taking over a company… Now the initial talks went very slowly and it was kind of depressing (at least I felt that way late at night in the hotel room) but then I remembered that it was me. I wanted to be very fast-moving forward and that my fast-forward-moving brain was the one to blame… So I decided to just have fun in the remaining days… and after 3 days… they finally told me to go ahead with the talks ….. .it taught me to adjust to the other persons speed and to let go… I know what I want, I can see it, I can feel and I want it…so it will be 🙂

  6. richardderwentcooke says:
    12 July , 2009 at 19:49

    You might find it interesting to read the blog about Pace. Matching your pace to that of others is a key to establishing rapport.

    Realising the value of ‘kicking back’ and enjoying yourself when you have to wait is very good… and bore fruits.

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