Thursday, February 3, 2011

Don't try to fix the people: they aren't the problem.

Don't try to fix the people, just work on the process. Fixing people is cripplingly expensive: in time, energy, goodwill and - often - sanity. Usually, it doesn't work because usually the people aren't the problem.
While a clean sweep has it's appeal at times, it's too easy to start and too hard to finish. Most of us aren't ready for that much change or that much hassle for a mirage.
I can guarantee that, most of the time, if you were to replace the broken people in your life you would still have problems with the (new) people in your life. They'll just be different problems.
Tired of managing your stick-in-mud, cynical seat warmers? Great! How about you swap them for some high achieving, ruthlessly competitive, individualists?
Focus instead on the process. This holds true whether the process is a business process, or a family relationship. Why is the situation not working? Is it lack of understanding of what's needed (and if so, why)? Is it lack of cooperation (and if so, why)? Is it ingrained risk aversion (and if so, why)? Is it just a habit of mediocrity that now feels comfortable?
The two near eternal needs are more money and better personnel. Genuine success rests on first improving what you can do with what's available of both.
This is post 23 of 43 posts.
Sent from my iPhone

1 comment:

Lorenzo said...

But some people ARE problems. You are genuinely better of not having to deal with them.

The interesting question thus becomes: what makes the person the problem or not?