Do the work before your back is against the wall

Most of us know the feeling of having our back to the wall. I’m not referring to literally having your back against the wall, but figuratively. It is the feeling as though we are running out of options. We have to take action, and now. We become filled with some energy and some fear.

For some, that is the spark that starts an improvement journey. They take that motivation and energy and turn it into new behaviors. They take action and see results from their actions.

But for some, having their back against the wall means panic. They feel a surge of energy and fear and let the fear override everything else.

Panic doesn’t result in a long-term improvement journey. Panic drives us towards the quickest way to rid our mind of the fear. We turn to anything that will quickly calm our minds.

When I was earning my MBA we learned about a change leadership technique called creating a crisis. The idea was that, whenever you needed to drive major change in an organization, you needed a way to rally the troops.

You needed the staff to buy-in to your plans. You needed to upend their current ways of working. Asking nicely or yelling loudly doesn't work. You need something that gets them to feel the need to change.

By creating a crisis, you create an environment where the staff feels the company’s back is against the wall. It can help create unity and drive towards resolution. It can gain buy-in and motivate others to change their current processes. But it can also insight panic and cause people to look elsewhere to further their career.

I wasn’t a huge fan of this technique. I have seen it used plenty of times and used it myself a few times. The problem is that if you overuse it, the refrains around needing to change become too common. When overused, employees see right through it and realize there isn’t a real crisis for the company.

The other problem with this approach is that it is temporary. It fades. Once the crisis is averted, behaviors slip back to the old processes. It doesn’t create the lasting change that we need to grow a business. It inserts a short jolt of energy into the business, but soon returns to the current normal.

A better approach is to not wait until your back is against the wall. We can plan ahead. We can strategize. We can constantly incorporate change and adjustments to our processes. We can add flexibility. These are all ways to get the long-term change we desire. But these all take time.

The option we usually have is to start slow, or wait. But when we wait, we may find ourselves forced to start fast. Starting slow allows us to make tweaks to our processes that result in long-term improvement. Starting fast means we use effort and motivation to get a spike of performance that trails off.

If you tend to wait to start until you feel it is critical, learn to take smaller steps sooner. This can help you grow the right processes and routines. It can help if you are leading improvement efforts in your business or if you are trying to better yourself.

The same approach applies to many areas of your life. It is the foundation of the systems and habits approach to improvement. Start now so you either avoid the crisis or you have a better foundation when the storm hits.

Create the SOP manual now and tighten up your operations so you aren’t faced with dread when you realize something went wrong. Develop your team leaders so they can respond when issues surface. Or wait to find out if they have the ability to fix problems.

Start your exercise routine now instead of waiting until right before your life insurance physical. Grow your savings now so when your car breaks down you have the funds to get it repaired. Spend time now on your relationship with your spouse instead of waiting until divorce seems imminent.

Go to school for your MS MBA now so you have knowledge when crisis hits your organization and your back is against the wall. Take the training courses now to better understand technical areas. Grow your internal network now so you when you need someone you already built the relationship.

Those small steps become even more important when crisis hits to avoid panic. We start to value the minuscule tweaks and keep doing them. We don’t write them off because they are too small. We see how they fit into the big picture. Then we keep doing them over and over until they become the new normal. This is how we can avoid waiting until our back is against the wall to improve our businesses. This is also how we improve our lives.