Enterprising home improvement leaders can take a run-down house with many design mistakes and flip it into a home that buyers bid on. Hard working chefs can look at a fallen cake and flip it into a dessert masterpiece. Crafty artisans can purchase a rusty furniture piece at a flea market and flip it into a sought after living room accent table. Innovative business leaders can take over a broken down organization and bring it back to life.
How do these leaders have the ability to transform an utter mistake into a desirable product or organization? They are all able to move past the mistake and visualize an opportunity.
To flip a mistake into a gift leaders must visualize an opportunity. Share on XReady to flip a mistake into a gift?
Put Your Vision Into High Gear
When leading a transformation of a dysfunctional product or organization, it is important to begin with a vision. Try to imagine how to redesign or change the current broken product or situation. Visioning how the altered product or company will look and feel helps leaders pinpoint the direction they want to move in. If you have a difficult time conjuring up a big picture for a change then ask others to join in on this reflective piece. Just remember that without a clear vision it is impossible to begin the flip.
Brainstorm Possible Alternatives
After we have a vision in place it is time to brainstorm the different solutions that may need to be considered. The benefit of brainstorming is that it allows many ideas to be shared, even those that initially seem outrageous. Any problem solving strategy needs time to evaluate all of the prospective choices available. A solid brainstorming session involves:
- Tons of ideas and suggestions being thrown out.
- No judgment as to whether things will definitely work.
- Massive creative thinking; the crazier the better.
- Keeping roadblocks out of reach.
- Writing down all the possibilities on a white board.
Devise A Clear Plan Of Action
Once all the ideas have been shared, hashed out, evaluated and chosen, it is time to develop a focused plan of attack. Choosing the best steps to make a change could impact your timeframe to complete the transformation. A faulty plan without specific procedures can result in a tremendous amount of misunderstandings. For example, if a team has been struggling with being more inclusive, all team members must be made aware of the new steps. In one case a leader who wanted to face diversity straight on decided to have members share their different cultural backgrounds once a month. Everyone was clear on the day they were responsible for bringing in items, food or even stories about their culture. The whole team feel became a gift of learning and acceptance.
A focused plan of action can help a team flip a mistake into a gift. Share on XPromote The Gift
A promising transformation is only as good as the sale of it. If you are redoing a product that has been worn-out or changing a failed performance management system for your company, the key to its success is rolling out its advantages and exciting characteristics. In the promotion make sure to explain:
- Why the change was necessary.
- The upgraded benefits to the customers using the transformed product or service.
- How the transformation will be a gift and opportunity for everyone.
What other ways have you flipped a mistake into a gift?
I think too many people minimize the power of visualization…I’m so glad that you brought this great mental tool to the forefront of your article. Visualization is based on pure science and can truly help us move toward our goals because we can actually see them in our future…
I have found that when we visualize a change or doing something new we alleviate some of our fears and reluctance to move forward. Creating images in our minds can often empower us to have more clarity. So couple our thoughts and pictures and we are well on our way to a transformation.
Thanks LaRae for your terrific additions!
Change management is where I started my career and one of my true passions. You definitely hit important points. I love that you’ve included “marketing” and promotion here. One place I’ve seen change initiatives fall flat is that when they “promote’ they forget that it needs to be a conversation, not a one-way sales process. People who are directly impacted by the change may have fears and concerns and need an opportunity to articulate them before they can be overcome.
Great approach to get the team involved!
Alli
You make such an important point about making the “sell” a conversation. When we encourage other people to ask questions about a change it will usually be more acceptable. It is when we shove ideas out with no room for discussion that transformation will never occur. Keeping an open dialogue and being willing to include others’ ideas in the change will lead to success.
Thanks Alli for your insights!
You raise such important points here. It’s so important to keep the dialogue open so people can see the cracks as they are occurring and have productive conversations along the way… perhaps finding ways to shift direction before the mistakes snowball and are more difficult to reverse.