Today’s thought-provoking message is inspired by a conversation I had recently with a leader who urgently wants to make change happen but is currently standing at the base of a very steep mountain, with the peak not even in clear sight.  

To be honest with you, I feel as though I am climbing mountains on a daily basis by stretching myself to do things completely outside of my comfort zone. So, I leaned into this challenge, knowing it would help me too.

We discussed strategies for how to get in front of key decision-makers in order to raise the call to action. Then we wrestled with some ideas for how this could be done with some urgency and at the same time feel completely doable. 

To give you some context, three people in leadership positions are coming up with a radical plan to get results for their organisation in terms of securing high-quality projects and empowering individuals to drive sustained innovation and growth. 

The steep mountain.

The problem is they currently don’t have access to the decision-making table. And unfortunately, these decision-makers are operating in a fog where they believe they are doing everything necessary to secure high-quality projects and drive growth, etc.

In other words, to the decision-makers, there isn’t a problem to solve.

Ohhhhhh but there is!!!

This is definitely a situation that calls for courageous leaders to step forward. Interestingly, as we were talking about different strategies to get a strong message across in the shortest time frame in the most engaging way - given the limited access to decision-makers - it struck me that we needed to make this easy on both sides of the fence.

It needed to be something the three leaders could agree upon and produce quickly. And at the same time, it needed to be presented in a way that a group of decision-makers who didn’t realise there was a problem to solve, could make an easy decision to move it forward.

Importantly, both sides needed to keep their reputation and status intact.

So, we arrived at the format of a 10-minute killer presentation that made the urgent call to action, hitting all the right points of vision, strategy, evidence and measurable actions. To be filmed so they didn’t need to be in the room. And we concluded that they just needed to provide the next logical step for the decision-makers to take. 

NOT requiring the decision-makers to commit to the entire radical plan. 

Just the next logical step.

It obviously needs to make sense and people need to understand where this may lead them, but it can be made simpler and easier to say yes to. 

I think we often overestimate the brain power of key decision-makers, especially when you put them in a high-pressure group situation, or remove valuable context. They are human too.

Make it easier for yourself to take action. AND make it easier for decisions to be made one step at a time.

Speaking of the next logical step . . . do you have a challenge you want to run by me?

Book a call and we can strategise together.

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