The slippery walk… the Change Journey

Regular readers will know I’m a walker.  Yesterday we were out on the South Downs and at the end of a lovely (but muddy) winter’s walk, we had to descend to our final destination.  It turned out that the path we needed to take was not signposted, and only spotted by my faithful guide because a) we were looking for it and b) there were bike tracks exiting from it that were marked with chalky tyre prints.  Like so many footpaths (and why this is, given that almost all of us have two feet, is a total mystery!) the path was narrow and not wide enough for both feet.  It was very steep, and the drop-off to the right was enough to make me not want to even look at it!  The final feature was mud.  Not just any mud but ultra slippy, chalk mud.  Potters glaze their pots with something called ‘slip’, which is a similar consistency, and I now know why it is called this!! Trying to negotiate this descent was more like skating than walking.

Why is this muddy tale relevant to you, oh business leader?  The thing is, our stroll is very similar to your Change Journey.  We knew where we needed to end up.  We could even see it.  However, we weren’t there yet.  We had to focus on each and every step we needed to take, one step at a time, and we each had to go at our own pace.  Each step was a chance for an inglorious and messy upset, and yet we needed to continue.  Sometimes Change is messy, and you just need to keep plodding on, and if by any chance the path you have chosen is just too difficult, you have go back and find another way down.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2015 at 08:00 and is filed under Business Change, Hints, Tips & Techniques. 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.