Posts Tagged ‘control’

Going with the Flow

Monday, December 7th, 2009

plotting a course Someone responded to my blog yesterday “I usually let it go with the flow……or better……where the flow takes us……….”    And it made me realise that what sounds rather like a bit of a hippy cliché in fact contains some really serious keys to successful change.  Change is organic; it comes from within.  Attempts to impose it from the outside (the usual method in most businesses) is almost doomed to fail.  We need to encourage and enable people to change, not force it. 

Working with the currents of ‘What Is’,   rather than what we would like to be, uses the same principles as sailing, which forces the sailor to shift his course to take account of the wind, tides and weather rather than merely following an arbitrary plotted route.

Understanding this simple lesson is perhaps the key to Change

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”  Lao-Tzu

“Every flow has its ebb.”   French Proverb

 

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Outside your control

Friday, August 7th, 2009

OUT-OF-CONTROL1 I had two incidents happen in the last 24hours which left me feeling very uncomfortable.  The first was an update of this blog software which somehow scrambled the formatting and ruin the page.  Next day, I got a couple of letters from the Revenue about about some technical problem, which throws me into their system, and on to the ‘mercy’ of their common sense.  In both cases I have to rely on others expertise to sort me out.  It is not a comfortable feeling to be powerless and completely reliant on others.

The thing is that in companies it is those with the least power who suffer from the most stress for exactly these reasons.  The more you can involve people, and give them some kind of choice, the less stressed they will be.

Managing communications is also key as you don’t want people to feel that you are keeping secrets from them, but nor do you want to alarm them by speaking about things too soon, when everything is vague and up-in-the-air.  It is a very delicate balancing act, and one key is to be as honest as you can, and treat others with respect.  This helps reduce stress and resistance later on.

“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.”   Viktor E. Frankl

 

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