A Paint Roller Helps Manage Change
Chuck e-mailed his BIGG challenge to us. He’s starting a new job next week. It’s his third job as a manager. In the position he’s leaving, he feels he made too many changes too quickly. It created a problem with his directs. He’s hoping we can offer him some suggestions as he gets ready for his new job.
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As BIGG goal-getters, we often want to change things too fast as leaders and even in our personal lives. We think we need to lose weight so we jump into an exercise routine and completely change our diets. It’s too much and we end up right back where we started.
We have to be especially careful with change when it affects others. Like in Chuck’s case, any changes he makes will affect one or more of his employees.
Two of our rules for change here at BIGG Success are:
“That’s the way we’ve always done it” doesn’t mean it’s the best.
“That’s the way we’ve always done it” doesn’t make it wrong.
Change is essential to make improvements in our lives and our businesses. We want to focus on the changes that will make the greatest impact given their cost. When we talk about cost, we mean your investment of time and money – two of the five elements of BIGG success.
Get out the paint roller
We heard a suggestion some time ago from a person who had learned to manage change effectively. He said that when he takes on a new leadership position, the first and only change he makes is to paint a single wall of his new office.
He feels like he’s changed something. It relieves that pressure. Everyone around him can see that he changed something. In fact, they often ask, “Why did you paint that wall? Why that color? Why just one wall?” It makes them curious.
You may make a different, but similarly insignificant, change. By doing this, you’re really buying time to find out what is and isn’t working while subtly signaling that change will happen.
Once you find out what isn’t working, you can determine which changes to make in what order based on their impact on your organization … or your life!
What are your suggestions for Chuck?
You can share that with us by leaving a comment below, calling us at 877.988.BIGG or sending us an e-mail at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com.
Thanks Chuck for sharing your BIGG challenge with us and good luck with your new gig! And we thank you for reading our post today.
Join us next time as we share a remedy for one of the most discouraging thoughts you can have.
Until then, here’s to your BIGG success!
Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00362-033109.mp3
