Day 19 of 31 days to Creating Your Inspiring Personal Plan for 2012
By now, you should have developed a robust list of potential strategies that support your compelling Vision. You have potential strategies derived from using Gap Analysis (Step 14), using Strengths Analysis (Step 15), using Core Analysis (Step 16), using Support Analysis (Step 17), and using Change Analysis (Step 18). Hopefully, in each of these steps you have opened up your mind to a world of possibilities.
Well, in this step – the last before we start narrowing the list to the five or six strategies you will use in 2012 – I want to really, really stretch your thinking. And, I believe I have just the group of stars who can help me do that for you. But, before introducing you to these stars, I want to share some perspective on why possibility thinking is so challenging in strategic planning.
I doubt there are any of us who get up each day with the thought that we will be close minded. But, our past experiences tend to close our thinking. Over time, patterns of behaviors and consequences “train us” to believe that things work in a certain way. In most cases, the only take-away should be that something happened that way in the past. The fact that companies once were almost totally void of females in the executive suite did not mean that woman would always be excluded from the executive suite. The fact that, for 200 years of our history in the U.S., all of the Presidents where white did not mean that pattern would always be the case. Etc. Etc. Things change, notwithstanding our patterning that often suggests that no change is likely.
Left to our own, most of us would plan a future
that bears an uncanny resemblance to our past.
For that is what we have been trained to expect.
So, I have urged you to have an open mind in identifying potential strategies. But, I expect I have only been moderately successful in getting you to really be open to new possibilities. As a result, I want to call in some stars to stretch your thinking.:)
One of the individuals I respect most in terms of thinking about how the world is changing (and therefore about how we must change to be successful in a “new” world) is Seth Godin. Book by book, and blog post by blog post, Seth stretches my thinking. For me, he is one of the key ingredients in my dinosaur immunity pill that I take daily to (hopefully) ward off creeping dinosaurism.
Two years ago, Seth came out with yet another delightful book, What Matters Now. Published in an ebook format, this book is a compendium of quick read thoughts by more than 70 thought leaders.
Click HERE to continue reading the full "19th Step" article -- Use Seth Godin Brilliance to Create Possible Strategies.
Co-host, Career Success Radio Show
A leading authority on career success; 15-year executive coaching veteran
Contact: Andy@CRGLeaders.com, 239-285-5575
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