Why Start Virtual Dreaming – Today: Now is the Hour for Business Resilience and Growth Investment
As I sit here at my desk in my home office, I have several thoughts going through my head. I have just watched Donald Trump’s morning Covid Crisis Press Briefing. The Donald is doing his best to be positive and even said ‘I am a cheerleader for the country. I don’t want to be negative. There are enough negatives out there. I want to give the people hope.. The Economy wants to get back to work.. you can feel it..’
(He has since said several other things where he might be spending a little too much time in optimism and dreaming and not enough focusing on the Science..)
On this one thing we will agree. We all want to get back to work. Get back to being able to meet face to face in coffee shops and board rooms. We all want revenue and profits and teams and customers to get back to where they were even 3 and 4 months ago. But the fact is the world has changed….
My son and his partner and my Grandchild are downstairs having breakfast. The baby is sitting in his new high chair. Life goes on.
There is a new generation being born. They have a future just as we have a future. When it comes to future I love the quote from the Management guru Professor Peter Drucker who said:
‘The best way to predict the future is to create it..’
Right now, in this downtime of home office and social distancing, is the perfect time to take Drucker’s advice: to be predicting and creating – planning for your business future. That future certainly needs to now not only plan for survival, but also resilience, and growth. Now is the perfect time to do some dreaming. To sit with your trusted business partners and fellow leaders. To get collective brainpower on the job and set some bold new goals and plans.
If you are serious about Resilience and Growth you need to have a Holistic – Whole of Person – Whole of Business Growth approach.
Whole of Person – Whole of Business Growth Strategies
Whole of Person- Whole of Business has several principles:
- Your Business is a Reflection of You
- Your Inner World of thoughts, beliefs, self talk and stories will determine your Outer World results of growth, investment, risk taking, sales and growth success
- If you don’t invest in empowering yourself and your people to change and grow, how do you expect your thinking and your results to change and grow?
- You need to work a system of Daily Deliberate Practice and Daily Empowerment for yourself and your whole team to have Everyone, Everywhere, Everyday Improving your Business results.
Whether it be Donald Trump or Norman Vincent Peale or Elon Musk or anyone you admire as a business leader, they all agree in one form or another that what goes on in their mind, the way they think, their thinking patterns and belief systems, have a direct impact on their outer world success.
The average person has about 48.6 thoughts per minute, according to the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at the University of Southern California. That adds up to a total of 70,000 thoughts per day.
The National Science Foundation reported that 80% of those thoughts are negative and up to 95% of thoughts are exactly the same repetitive thoughts as the person had the day before.
The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius put it this way: “A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson modified this when he wrote “A man is what he thinks about all day long..”
Buddha taught ‘We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.’
If we are to create new futures with different results we need to train, coach and empower ourselves and our business teams to change, innovate and transform our thinking and thought processes. That’s why we talk about and teach Whole of Person – Inner World and Outer World – Whole of Business Empowerment Systems.
How do we fast track our thinking and transformation?
As a student of business success, once you get access to the thinking of the Master you are studying, you understand the software and operating systems that guide their decision making and behaviour – and how they get the results they get.
For example, here is just one insight into the thinking of one of the world’s most successful investors and business people, Warren Buffett:
“Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.”
This may well explain why Buffett reads on average around 6 hours every day. He is a Master at gathering knowledge so when he makes the investment, he is not taking the risk. Here is another piece of thinking software that guides his decision making
“It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price, than a fair company at a wonderful price.”
As coaches and consultants our mission is to facilitate change, innovation, growth and the optimisation of value and human potential. We have committed our lives to working with people in companies, in teams, to master their skills and talents to create value and make a difference for their customers, their shareholders, their families and their communities.
At one level there is nothing new under the sun. Viruses and plagues have come and gone before. Humans have come out of the devastation of World Wars. World War 1, World War 2, Korean War, Vietnam War. When you look back at the destruction and damage done in all those conflicts its almost unimaginable that humans could recover from them – but they do. There is always recovery, rebound and renaissance.
For you and your business to Rebound, Reboot and Recover from this Covid crisis there are two important first steps. These are the same steps that everyone from Jesus Christ to Ghandi to Steve Jobs and Jack Ma.
Lorna Jane Clarkson teamed with her husband Bill.
Billionaire entrepreneur Sara Blakely struggled alone in her two bedroom apartment for 18 months before her first team member joined her.
Contrary to popular belief – Everyone moves faster in business a team.
You can’t do it all yourself.
Intellectually and emotionally in these tough times, you will rebound faster when you share your challenges, dreams and goals with others who want to help get there with you.
‘The journey of 1000 miles starts with the first step.’ Lao Tzu
Start with these two steps; The beauty of which you can do over Zoom or Skype.
Step One: The Compelling Vision of the Future
It all starts with a Vision of where you want to be. You want to be defined by a compelling vision of the future, not from the known, but the unknown. If we just try to create the future from the memories of the past we will be so far off track we won’t even be in the new game.
You want a clear picture of what the new you, the new company, the future company. You don’t want to just recreate the you and the company of the past.
The only thing constant is change. The only thing constant will be disruption. You want the whole of you and the whole of your business to get comfortable in the discomfort zone.
Step Two: Get your Team involved and engaged
You want a Whole of Person – Whole of Business approach to the re-imagining and re-creation of your business in the Post Covid world.
It will be a new world. It will be a better world. It will be created by people with balls and dreams big enough to imagine it then go after it.
We have been working with companies, large and small, helping them dream the dream, then implement the dream for the past 37 years. Nothing changes and everything changes. Now is the time to start the re-imagining process.
You can start the process using the Zoom and Skype and other social distancing tools. Social distancing doesn’t mean staying in bed for the next 3 months. It means, get on Zoom, get on Skype and lets start virtual dreaming, virtual re-imagining, virtual Whole of Person – Whole of Business Empowerment.. today..
Set in motion a program for Everyone, Everywhere, Everyday business growth and empowerment. Don’t leave it to chance. Now is the perfect time for a Business Resilience and Growth investment.
My suggestion would be that you open your virtual Business Resilience meeting with this quote from the Scottish Mountaineer and writer, William Hutchison Murray:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!”
Use your Boldness, Genius and Power to go create Magic.
I hope this article has helped you.
Leigh Farnell
Business Innovation and Growth
Leigh has been a business coach and facilitator for over 30 years and has worked with some of the biggest names in Australia. If you are interested in learning more about Leigh and his workshops on Essemy, please visit this link
