Forward Momentum
Posted on November 06, 2021 by Greg Myers, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.
Awareness / Insight / Commitment / Action - a repeating cycle. No new awareness, no change.
I was scrambling up a shale mountainside. Or at least, I was trying. Feet pumping, hands grabbing, almost crawling, I’d make a bit of progress and then slide back down. This wasn’t working – no forward momentum.
Effective change starts with awareness. In this case, that I wasn’t going to get up the slope using my current technique. Often, change is blocked because we lack awareness. For me, it was the fact that I needed to literally catch my breath that afforded the space for taking stock. My “mad-scramble” technique worked fine on steep slopes where the ground provided traction and handholds, but now I was good and stuck.
Perspective-taking is a good practice to set the stage for Awareness. Where are you scrambling? Running out of energy? Noticing that an opportunity is coming up, but you don’t see an off-ramp?
I’ll take a look at the other aspects of progress in the future – but for now, avoid rushing to the solution-step, or the decision-step, or the action-step and ask, “What is going on?” Now ask “Why?” Jot the answer down, and ask “Why?” of your answer. Keep drilling down – as many “Whys?” as you need to get to a good understanding. No need to move on until you get some clarity.
Awareness / Insight / Commitment / Action – a repeating cycle. No new awareness, no change.
