Most of my work involves supporting change of some sort or other.
That might be small change, which feel possible.
Or it might be incremental change, that feel intimidating, but possible.
And sometimes its embracing a bigger change that feels uncomfortable,
and maybe possible, but feels entirely impossible.
I can think of numerous examples in my own life where I’ve said “It’s not possible.”
It’s a way of avoiding doing the hard work necessary, embracing the uncomfortable and accepting there’s a risk it might not work.
But usually it’s riskier not to change.
(I’ve written about this before HERE)
When faced with a challenge, there’s two questions I’ve always found useful in helping to address the problem and tease out solutions.
What would it take?
[This is Dr Zoe Chance’s “magic question”.]
Our bias is always to the negative. Focussing on the challenge and why it’s impossible to fix.
The problem may be seemingly insurmountable. But I’m guessing there’s a solution. Be it a matter of (significant) resources, priority or time.
No matter what, spend some time thinking about what it would take. Write the answers or solutions to your challenge down (always write them down). No matter how outrageous, unlikely or beyond your control. When you think you’ve written down everything, challenge yourself to come up with 5 more. The best ideas always come at the end when you push beyond the low hanging fruit and the obvious ideas. The answer might need to be unconventional, lateral or unexpected.
We can if…?
It’s easier to avoid taking on the challenge, until the pain of the challenge is greater than the effort required to address it. That pain sounds like “We can’t because…”.
Finding excuses is less painful, scary and requires less work.
But if you’ve just taken some time to answer “What would it take?”, you’ve at least taken the time to understand what’s required to make change happen.
Forget all the reasons why it’s not possible, and spend time writing down (yes writing down) all the solutions to “We can if…” answering what it would take and coming up with solutions. Again taking time to push out an extra 5 or 10 responses when you think you’ve thought of everything.
Answers
With a bit of luck (and effort) you should now have at least a few viable ideas to making some changes. If they’re big, break them down into manageable steps or ask others for help. The solution often involves answering who might help me, rather than how might I do this? Then start, knowing it might take a few failures before success comes your way. They’re all necessary steps.
You got this.
AI image generated in Canva
