My recent errand to the grocery store taught me a valuable lesson on business foresight. I’m sitting at the four-way stop half a mile from our home. There is a car stopped across the intersection in the left turn lane. Trying to be courteous, I wave to the driver to go ahead and turn left since they were there first.
He just sits there, so I start to pull forward into the intersection. As I look up, cars are also entering the intersection from my left and right. Suddenly, I realize the stop signs are gone and two brand-new traffic lights are staring at me. BOTH BEAMING RED!
Now I understand why the car I waved on did not turn left in front of me. How did I miss that the stop signs were gone and these traffic lights were in their place? The other drivers clearly saw what I didn’t see — which is not what we want in our careers or business.
This is a simple but glaring example of how our minds become happy with patterns and habits. It demonstrates how powerful our beliefs can be. My mind completely ignored the traffic lights as I pulled up to what had been a four-way stop for the nine years I’ve lived in my neighborhood. Making matters worse, I saw them putting the new red lights up a few weeks ago so I had the information to know this was changing soon.
My habits and beliefs physically blinded me. This same phenomenon happens in business every day. How often do we ignore the signs of change in our career or business and wait, hoping the status quo will hold a little longer? With all these signs, why didn’t I anticipate the traffic lights being activated?
This is what I see happening in the business world today, we know some things are coming, yet we are not anticipating the change and when it might happen. We are not preparing for the opportunities and challenges that they will present. Too many leaders and organizations are camping on what has worked for the last nine years. Remember, our minds love the status quo and hate change.
I hope this wake-up call will open our eyes and ears to all of the change around us and we will use our critical thinking skills to anticipate the opportunities and challenges for our career and our team. In an exponential world, we do not always have the time to react like I did as I headed into traffic.
THE REST OF THE STORY
Me: CeCe, I almost ran that red light on Highland Colony right by our house.
CeCe: Really! Why?
Me: I forgot it had changed from a four-way stop.
CeCe: Didn’t you see the red lights? They have been up for two weeks…
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