I have been thinking some more about the cycle of change and how it works when thinking about enterprise and transforming communities.
I think this re-work helps to show that there may be a lot of people who are not interested in changing to a ‘more enterprising’ set of behaviours.
If we are serious about transformation then we need to find ways to engage people in this group and understand what the barriers are to them even thinking about the possibility of change. Most efforts seem to be targeted at those who are already in the cycle at some point. You know the kind of stuff – ‘Have You Got a Great Business Idea’ or ‘Thinking of Starting a Business?’. Both of these will get a resounding ‘No’ from those not interested in change.
What kind of marketing messages might work for this group? Well how about:
‘Fed up with the same old, same old?’
‘Are you brassed off and angry?’
‘Ever felt like you are wasting your life away?’
‘Something that you want to make happen – but not sure how?’
It also shows the almost inevitable role of lapse and re-lapse in the change process. It is very unusual for someone to go from one set of behaviours to another without either lapses or relapses. Yet often lapse or relapse in the field of enterprise represents failure rather than progress.
What is your repsonse when one of your clients take a step backwards, misses an appointment or otherwise does not make the progress that you had hoped for?
“People are always blaming circumstances for what they are. I do not believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they cannot find them, they make them.”
George Bernard Shaw