“There’s always free cheese in the mouse traps, but the mice there aren’t happy.” – Anonymous
One of the hazards of my occupation is that sometimes people make assumptions. Perhaps the most common assumption is that when we say we can help your business be more successful, people assume that means we’re going to bring some kind of magic power to bear and all they’ll have to do is snap their fingers and all their problems are solved.
Obviously that’s false. That’s not how the world works. Very little about success is easy. It isn’t always complicated, but it’s almost never easy. Even simple solutions can be a challenge to implement. And implementation is really the key.
I’ve told people this for a long time: the competitive advantage in business going forward isn’t going to be having great ideas, or having some kind of great knowledge, or having some kind of terrific process, or anything like that. In today’s world virtually all knowledge is public. You may come out with something great, but six months later your competition’s probably doing the same thing.
The real competitive advantage will be the ability to implement change effectively. It won’t be enough to have the great idea; you have to be able to effectively put it into place so that it can have the impact it should. It won’t be enough to figure out the best way to create or deliver your product or service; you have to be able to actually implement that process or method.
There are lots of factors that go into being good at change, but one key component in all situations is work. There is no magic bullet. There is no free lunch. You’re not going to wake up one day and figure out that you can change your organization without breaking a sweat. It just doesn’t happen that way. You have to go get it.
The bad news is that despite what most people say about their work ethic, the reality is that most of them really don’t want to work hard enough to accomplish what they say they want to accomplish. We continue to look for the easy method (get rich quick, get in shape overnight, etc.). Then we’re disappointed when we don’t get what we want.
hink about how you approach your business as a leader. Are you really putting in the effort and energy into making change? Are you really taking the extra step? Or are you just talking about it and then watching opportunities pass you by? The responsibility is yours. Get to work or get out of the way.
