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Be Agile and Flexible

Adopt a flexible approach

No, this does not mean that you need to be a contortionist or agree with everything.  What I mean by a flexible approach is being conscious of your own knee-jerk reaction to change.

The minute anyone proposes something new, how do YOU react? Are you open-minded, with your head tilted, shoulders down and body relaxed as you listen with interest or do you automatically frown, cross your arms and dig your heels in, gearing up for a defensive stand before the person has even said one word?

I think the majority of us tend to first dig in and cross our arms, presenting a strong resistant front. Look at the Catholic Church’s reaction when Galileo said the Earth rotated around the Sun and not the other way around. Don’t mention that to the Flat Earth Society!

What do you think the effect would be if you were more curious and more open to a different point of view? Imagine where the world would be if Alexandre Flemming, the inventor of Penicillin, hadn’t been curious about bacteria? If you are curious and open then there is no need to “buy in” or do anything except be an active listener and open up. This then gives you the space to digest the information before reacting to the news. On reflection you may find that that the change is not as bad as you think. Is it really that big? How much will you have to change? Why should you change?

Remember you don’t know what you don’t know! Some of the changes will have no points of reference to compare to... so don’t waste energy trying to do just that. For others, it will be your experience, skills and knowledge which will allow for the best way to approach and apply the changes impacting your business area. Brainstorm with your teams and collaborate with CBT to propose new ways of doing things.  Sometimes you WILL have to do things differently in order to get the different results that the bank needs.

 Moving from product to customer centricity, takes a lot of change, beginning with the way we think! We are still a bank who has to move, borrow, store and invest money but we have to be creative, innovative and flexible in order to remain competitive.

So how do we become more flexible?

Why not try something simple and start by doing something differently for a week? e.g. changing the route that you take to work or changing your breakfast cereal.

Try saying YES to something you usually say No to or vice versa. I always thought audio books were dull to listen to. My father made me listen to one of the Jack Reacher ones and I was enthralled. They have definitely improved the quality.

Observe what happens and how you feel about it. The good news is that no matter how you feel about it, you still make the change and the world will still be standing.

Want to know more?

Books
The Art of Tea by Osho

You Tube Video’s
Ted Talks – Tim Brown on Creativity
Ted Talks – Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity

Blog
How to stay committed but flexible


Let us know where you have needed to become more flexible by posted your comment below
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