The actions we take ultimately determine the course of our own trajectories: toward decline, mediocrity, or growth.
2 Types of Effective Responses
Based on my three decades of living in various countries and communities, and working with numerous organizations and businesses in multiple sectors, I believe there are two types of effective responses to challenges:
- See; Advance Preparation: Anticipating and preparing for future eventualities—noting important shifts in a situation so as to make adequate preparations for the upcoming changes.
- Don’t See; Advance Preparation: Preparing even for those developments that may not be expected. People who are well-prepared for unspecified change tend to thrive regardless of what comes their way.
4 Types of Ineffective Responses
In contrast to these effective responses, I have frequently seen four types of ineffective actions in the face of challenges:
- Don’t See; Do Nothing: A failure to see the challenge itself or the signals pointing to it, resulting in a lack of preparation and general inaction. Interestingly, I have encountered both people who fail to take notice of the signs around them because of a lack of a sense of urgency, and those who have chosen by intent not to see the oncoming change, denying its presence. In either case, the situation is bound to head for the worse.
- See; Still Do Nothing: A recognition that challenges or problems exist, accompanied nonetheless by a failure to deal with or remedy them. Complacency and deferral best describe this situation.
- See; Wrong/Ineffective Responses: A recognition of the challenges, followed by erroneous and ineffective measures taken. Finger-pointing, scapegoating, and causing distractions are prime examples of this unfortunate policy.
- See; Delayed Responses: A delayed response, in which people see the challenges ahead but procrastinate before dealing with them. Arrogance is often the root cause of this tactic.
The actions we take determine whether we can make progress toward the desired results or be forced to fall back into decline. The critical question thus becomes “How do we ensure that we offer the right response?” This leads to my next point.
