Make Your Rain Making Visible

Similar to the Native American rain dances of old, they were never performed in isolation, but in view of the tribe; to give the members of the tribe hope—your people need to see you leading the charge in action, not just in words. To build confidence within the people of your organization, they have to visually see your efforts to turn things around, including your personal rain making efforts. This gives them the hope they need to persevere during the current cuts, challenges, and fears caused by today’s economic realities.

This lesson was learned at Mitsubishi Motor Sales of North America, in the early 1990s—the executives learned the hard way; wasting one entire year in their efforts to change the organizational culture. The lesson learned was simple: people believe what they see, not what they hear. The executives were telling everyone what they wanted to happen but were not living the vision themselves.

Similarly, a friend’s mistake has always stayed with me. He and his investors went bankrupt on a golf course project in the 1970s. Their 20/20 hindsight revealed that their mistake was that of spending their money building the golf course before they built the club house. Potential members could not see the progress from the earth moving in the distance so many decided not to act on the special pre-opening offer; money the group badly needed to finish the project. Most people have to see it to believe.

What’s Old Might be New

Robert Rickenbach, owner of a fiber optics connector fabrication company discovered that the railroad in India could use his connectors in a different application than for which they were originally designed and opened an unexpected international market for his company. What about you? What unexpected, or explored, markets could benefit from your products, services, and other offerings?

In your effort to develop new markets, new applications, and/or new products and services, how much time have you spent? It has been said by persons wiser than I, that most people spend more time planning their vacation than they spend planning their life. What about the success of your organization? How much time have you spent in REAL product/market development strategic planning sessions? For most, not much is the honest answer.

Who can help? The quick answer is: your suppliers, your employees, and your customers. Sometimes innovation is a happy accident and sometimes it is the result of intense organizational processes, individual champions, and intellectual properties—and most times, a result of tireless hard work. What are you doing to innovate?

Back in the mid-1990s I served as a trainer for the Dunn & Bradstreet Foundation, delivering full-day public seminars throughout the USA . One of the exercises I conducted when doing a seminar within a company required an unorthodox approach to problem solving. Interestingly, it was never the organization’s leader that came up with the solution but rather others generally in administrative or support positions. Proof for me that leaders need to encompass all in their organization for solutions to today’s pressing challenges.

Your Responsibility and Accountability

Let’s face it; nobody really enjoys the mirror being brought up close. However, in times like we are now facing, that is exactly what is needed. No matter how good a leader you might be, you know that you can do better. And, if you are a lousy leader, you are unlikely to be reading this article. Listed below are some of the pitfalls, conscious or unconscious, to leading in a recession:

* Not being aware of the depth of your organization’s situation.
*Not having a “rainy day” contingency plan.
*Not being open to innovation in market, product, and process.
*Not honestly looking in the mirror.
*Living off past glory.
*Expecting others to act as rain makers.
*Hunkering down expecting the current economic situation to quickly blow over like a tropical storm.

Your “to do” list should include the following:

*Honest evaluation of your organizations current situation through the traditional SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis process with your company’s stakeholders; first your employees, then with your suppliers, and last with your customers. Oh yes, and LISTEN! Generally the SWOT analysis is done only in the bubble of the executive suite, thereby missing needed additional perspectives.
*Step it up and lead the charge, even if it is only activity for activity’s sake. Activity begets enthusiasm, if positioned correctly and your employees see that you are putting in the time.
*Look to other industries for answers in as much as you can adapt ideas. It is foolish to think you can adopt, however adaptation is an important form of innovation that will serve you well.

If your organization is zipping along, perhaps you have already conducted the steps necessary to thrive? Perhaps this article is merely an affirmation that you are on the right track? However, if your company is struggling—it might mean that your leaders, or you, have been asleep at the wheel. The good news is that there might be enough time to turn things around and put your company back on the productive path. Plant this thought in your subconscious mind: your employees have been there for you, helping you to make your organization what it had been. Don’t you think you owe it to them to show up and rebuild? It’s their livelihood also!

Copyright © 2010 Ed Rigsbee http://www.rigsbee.com. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to Ed Rigsbee for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of Ed Rigsbee

This simple formula eliminates self-criticism, fear and stress. It is applicable to any situation and works
every time. You can use it repeatedly without limitation.

L. Ron Hubbard discovered the KRC
Triangle in 1960.

"THE K-R-C TRIANGLE"

"The points are K for
KNOWLEDGE, R for RESPONSIBILITY and C for CONTROL."

"It is difficult to be
responsible for something or control something unless you have KNOWLEDGE
of it."

"It is folly to try to control
something or even know something without RESPONSIBILITY."

"It is hard to fully know
something or be responsible for something over which you have no
CONTROL, otherwise the result can be an overwhelm."

"Little by little one can make
anything go right by

"INCREASING KNOWLEDGE . . .
,"

"INCREASING RESPONSIBILITY . .
. ,"

"INCREASING CONTROL . . .
."

"If one sorts out any
situation one finds oneself in on this basis, he will generally
succeed."

"By inching up each corner of
the KRC triangle bit by bit, ignoring the losses and making the wins
firm, a being at length discovers his power and command of life." —
L. Ron Hubbard

KRC Triangle Application Recommendations

Select a problem and write it down or
type it into your computer. Then write or type the answers for each of
these five steps.

1. Raise the Knowledge corner.

How can you increase your knowledge about
the problem? What do you need to learn about it? What should you study
to better understand the problem?

2. Raise the Responsibility corner.

How can you take more ownership for the
problem? What parts of the problem are you responsible for? Can you
accept responsibility for the parts you did not cause?

3. Raise the Control corner.

What part of the problem can you control?
How could you take a little more control for the other parts?

4. Ignore the losses.

If you focus on losses or failures, they
get bigger and more overwhelming. You then pull in even more losses. So
find ways to ignore these losses.

If ignoring losses is difficult, try
writing them down on a sheet of paper and then destroy the paper. Shift
your attention. Stop talking or thinking about them. Avoid people who
bring them up. Move on.

If you catch yourself dwelling on losses,
knock it off. Put your attention elsewhere. Stop talking about losses.
And learn to ignore the failures of others as well.

5. Make the wins firm.

What can you do to make your successes
firm? How can you solidify them?

Maybe you can write them down or put them
on a wall. Keep a record of your wins. Talk about them to everyone you
can. Celebrate them.

Also, make a habit of finding and
focusing on the wins of others. The more attention you put on success,
the more success you get.

Some of your answers to these questions
are easy, enjoyable steps. Do those right now! You will see a sudden
improvement in the problem.

Then do the tougher steps you wrote. Once
you start on them you will find they are not so tough after all.

If following these five steps does not
completely solve the problem, repeat the steps until the problem is gone
forever.

As well as solving problems for you,
these steps will start to bring out the best in you. You will discover a
new sense of command over life that you have always had, but never used.

Use the KRC Triangle to release the real
powerhouse you know that you are.

Copyright © 2009 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard