73. Do you go with the Flow?

You can’t change everything.

Nor would you wish to.

Vision and objectives are critical to success but not every objective needs to be about change.

The things that are already built are important too.

The foundations we stand on.

The water we swim in.

Not just in a static sense, or keeping things as they were.

The ordinary things we do habitually matter.

Being organized. A regular coherent and efficient stream of activities, information and relationships.

Like water in a running stream, taking itself towards an objective and carrying us along with it.

You could call it Flow.

Effective teams have a sense of rhythm as well as an eye for creativity.

Getting these two right is a key leadership responsibility.

Balancing Distractions with Routines.

“..not every objective needs to be about change…”

Good leaders encourage flow not just disruption.

Do you think about how ordinary, routine things get done?

Is improving them part of your strategy, or left to others to do?

Or just to chance?

When you plan changes do you consider how existing people and processes could deliver them?

When sudden changes happen to your organization, do you react by utilizing what processes you have in place?

Do you actively build routines that are designed to handle emergencies?

Do your routines adapt to changes, and actually drive change without disrupting everything else?

Or do you “stop everything” for the latest idea?

Strong, well entrenched routines don’t hold back creativity, they give big changes a solid base to launch from.

And a safe place to land when things go wrong.

Because they’re entrenched they are efficient, taking little or no effort to maintain.

People work better achieving change when how they achieve change is consistent with how they work normally.

Well designed and well led routines carry teams towards their goals like a river carries fish.

Do you go with the flow?

“I might be wrong, but at least I’ve thought about it…”