Are your decisions indecisive and your solutions long in
coming?
Grab a piece of paper and write down your top 10 issues
that still are unresolved, undecided, unmoving. (Go ahead.
Hit the 'pause' button and do it now - I'll wait for you.)
I had a meeting with a successful professional this month
who was stalled. She has a fabulous new business idea that
could revolutionize the driving habits of young drivers and
the costs of insurance for their parents. And she wasn't
making progress.
As we spoke about her thinking and the actions she'd taken,
it was clear that she'd become stuck in her approach. Stuck
with a particular point of view about how best to proceed.
Stuck with her 'knowing' based on many years experience in
the industry.
And yet, that 'knowing' is a two-edged sword. She's not
alone. I often find for myself and my clients that the root
of our becoming 'stalled' lies in our fixation on how we're
approaching the situation. We're certain that we know the
question and all the factors we're supposed to take into
consideration. Often we've written off the alternative
ideas without actually considering them.
We give the available options no attention at all.
And then no progress is made. No decision is made. No plan
of action is designed or implemented.
On the one hand my client knows exactly to who contact
throughout the industry to explore the idea. On the other
hand, she had passed over the rather long list of
alternative entry points for her idea and ended up
immobilized when her contacts didn't move forward with her
proposal.
Our life experience and our training and expertise often
box us in and prevent us from seeing the many other ideas
and solutions that are available. So here is one of the
simplest and most powerful techniques you can use to expand
your attention and expand your options in a similar
situation. The technique is called the
REFRAME ' Change Your Frame of Reference
Add a new person with a different background to the
conversation.
A new mind, with other experiences and expertise, often
helps create the shift that will enable you to reach a
decision.
The less similar the new mind you bring to the
conversation, the quicker you'll see the assumptions you've
been making that have been preventing you from seeing the
alternatives you could pursue.
When my clients use me, they know they'll get new
perspectives as you'll see later. When a fresh additional
person is not available, I find that the following
technique works for most of my clients to get them shifting
their references.
For my client, this version of the Reframe Technique came
up with more than six distinct new approaches she could
pursue. Every single one of them was as viable as the idea
she'd been stuck on. One was to change from using the
insurance industry as the entry point for her proposal to
the parents themselves.
Parents could be approached individually and in their local
organizations. Since the idea is of economic benefit to
them as well as to the insurance companies at large, there
might be quicker receptivity to the idea and quicker action
on testing her idea.
There were more High Payoff ideas that came from our
meeting, but I'll save those for you to discover in the
mailer you get from your insurance company in years to come.
So grab the Reframe Technique and apply it to something on
that list you wrote out, and let's get it moving again so
you can boost your productivity this week.
----------------------------------------------------
© 2008 Linda Feinholz Management expert, consultant,
and coach Linda Feinholz is "Your High Payoff Catalyst" If
you're ready to focus on your High Payoff activities, boost
your professional and personal results and have more fun,
get her FREE audio mini-course "7 Quick & Simple Steps to
Increase Your Focus, Ease Your Effort & Accelerate Your
Results" and the free weekly newsletter The Spark! Visit
http://www.YourHighPayoffCatalyst.com
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