Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Denial, Desperation or Determination

John Kotter's book, A Sense of Urgency, goes a long way in explaining why 70% of attempted change doesn't achieve it's goal. He also states that based on his research only 10% of attempted change is successful.
The one central point is that people do not have enough of a high level of urgency to push through to the end. The 10% had emotion, high levels of urgency and a keen sense of what is critical.
The two enemies of success are complacency and 'false' urgency. Complacency reveals itself in denial that anything is in need of radical change and 'false' urgency reveals itself in activity based on fear and anxiety. The fear base effort to change looks like a lot is happening but is only misdirected action and frenzy with no clear outcome in mind.
Questions:
Denial: Are you in denial (complacent) that in your person, in your relationships, in your work, in your spirituality change is needed?

Desperation: Are you in hyper drive (false urgency) full of activity, meetings, lists, etc, creating a false sense of urgency that will only lead to frustration, anger, cynicism?

Determination: Are you in the 10% zone where there is an identifiable critical matter to change in your life that is emotional and creates a high level of urgency. Where there is a seemingly contradictory clam, clarity of focus and anticipation?

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