Tell everyone what you're going to do !

The law of pertubation explains that in order for something to grow there must be pressure. It explains why behind every good idea is someone championing it, that either got really mad and angry about something, or saw a possibility for something different. You’ll know as well as I do that at work, if you don’t have everyone behind an idea, no matter how good it is, it just won’t have legs.

Or, if you have no time to implement something, but you put someone in charge who loves it, then it’ll work. Every great idea, needs a champion !

So, now given that we need pressure in order to grow, and that there’s no pressure when we’re comfortable, and therefore no growth. How can we create pressure, and kick start growth?

There’s a few ways, and I’ll explore some of them here:

One way to create pressure is to create more space. The Law of Vacuum, another very cool law, says that nature abhors a vacuum and everything grows to fill the available space. You can see this in your own houses, “everything expands to fit the space available to it” Look around, I’m sure when you moved in you thought you had oodles of room, but now….?

At work, you can see this in time management and procrastination ! Have you noticed how activities always expand to fill the time allotted. If you want something done sooner, then you’ve just got to create a smaller timeframe, which applies more pressure, so the job gets done sooner. There’s a great quote about deadlines, “if it wasn’t for deadlines, nothing would get done!” Have you ever noticed how much work you can get through two days before you’re due to go on holiday? Stuff that’s been on your to do list for literally months is cut through, like a hot knife through butter – why isn’t it like that all the time? Hmmmm, there’s not the same pressure !

If you want more business, create the space for it. Hire more salespeople, expand your shop space, buy another van, book the space to conduct a workshop, etc. Creating space will naturally create pressure for you to fill that space.

Another way to create pressure, and its everyone’s least favourite, is to tell EVERYONE what you’re going to do ! So if you want to open another shop in the next year, for instance, then tell everyone you know, your family, neighbours, friends the dog, the postman, customers, publicise it in the local newspaper, that’ll create some pressure to get that second shop. We tend to like to do things undercover, that way if it doesn’t work out, we didn’t fail, because we weren’t really trying. Its one way we fool ourselves into avoiding the pressure for change. No one likes to look stupid, but really, what’s the worst that can happen?

Create a compelling future, for you and for those around you, so that going through the discomfort of the change process is going to be worth something in the end. Its rather like moving house, you only do it, because its going to be a nicer house, more room, a better neighbourhood, a bigger kitchen, or some such reason. Or at least that’s how you sell, or are sold the idea.

You create the picture of how the future will look, your vision of it, how the shop will be, what colour the walls will be, the new products you will be able to sell, what the new type of customers will be like, how going upmarket will transform your finances, or whatever it is, and then you talk about it, until everyone is on board with your idea.

Remember nature abhors a vacuum and will fill it up regardless, so you might as well have it filled up with your compelling vision of what the future will be than a random assortment of your staff’s visions, which will be eclectic and will diffuse the USP of your shop, so remember the law of vacuum and set a direction today and champion your vision….