Keeping Things Simple Isn’t Easy

Just like the work required for laying a foundation to any building to stand the test of time, establishing routines that model the core values that will ultimately serve as the foundation our organization is built on can be incredibly difficult. Before moving on, I’ve gotta ask.. Is it just me or does it always seem to be way harder to develop good habits than it is to slip into bad ones? I guess we could take a lesson from what Robert Frost shared more than 100 years ago in “The Road Not Taken”...

While it’s been a long time since I’ve dug or poured footers, or mixed mud for block layers, I still have a very vivid memory of exactly what’s required in each step of a residential foundation, none of which is all that exciting. Establishing the habits required to effectively live out our organizational values, especially if we’re starting from scratch and the only one working to do so, is a heavy load for even the strongest leader. But practicing the behavior to develop the habit isn’t the hardest part; the step prior to and the step that follows both require even more determination.

Early in this process, we looked at the importance of removing any possible ambiguity and defining exactly what the words we list as our core values really mean. As you can imagine, Cindy and I have been working closely with many of our clients over the last few months to help ensure they’ve done both. Developing a clear and concise definition for how each value is understood organizationally is a critical starting point, but it’s only a starting point! As leaders, we need to identify exactly how each of those definitions apply to our daily responsibilities; we need to translate them to the behaviors our teams see us performing. Developing that level of clarity for how we model each value may sound simple, but I assure you it’s not easy.

With that mental picture for acting out each value firmly in place, we can get to work on establishing our routine; our habits… Systems for sticking with each behavior until we’ve created the muscle memory I referenced before are huge, especially when we build those systems to support our individual behavioral style. Even then, there will be times where it feels like we’re not gaining any ground and doing the same old simple things isn’t making a difference. We’ll constantly hear of this new fad or that new approach, each being the best thing since sliced bread. The urge to chase new rabbits will often be high, but do you know what happens when you chase multiple rabbits? You don’t catch any…

Make no mistake, consistency is boring. Even more so when we’re working to keep our routines as simple as possible so each team member looking to us for leadership can understand exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing and how they can follow suit. I’ll say it again: keeping things simple isn’t easy. And many times, it’s stinking boring. Eventually, though, our teams will catch on. For that to happen, we’ll need to be very clear in detailing why we’ve chosen our simple approach and how each of them can do the same. We’ll pick up there next time.