Rigor – Its a Challenge

October 22, 2009 by  

Rigor: The “R” in DRIVE

One of the 5 elements of the RedShift DRIVE Self-Awareness and Change Leadership Model, and key to shifting identity in the logical/philosophical dimension, is Rigor.

Good consultants, coaches and facilitators know that the likelihood of lasting change increases when people find their own answers, decisions and solutions with our help. But what’s less evident is that a rigorous inquiry process, necessary to bringing a hidden belief into the light of awareness, can provoke strong, negative reactions. That’s because every belief that contradicts growth and development has hidden trade-offs and payoffs.

For example, a client may be willing to examine the belief that, despite evidence of an increasing shift to social business, as the seller, he or she has the power over the buyer. The client may grudgingly admit to the cost of the trade-offs of delaying or rejecting social business. Examples of these trade-offs are: late adoption, behind the learning curve, limited customer intelligence, risk of losing market share, lack of social community experience, etc. Consultants generally make recommendations that address the trade-offs. But the results of those recommendations, if implemented, get to the low-hanging fruit and result in incremental change at best or no lasting change at all.

Rigorous inquiry uncovers the payoff. In the example, the payoff to believing in business as usual, “we have the power”, could be individual or organizational self-preservation that mandates total control, invulnerability, and holding all the cards close. In other words, its the contradiction of social business.

There’s a logic to the payoff and its underlying beliefs. Acknowledging that logic is a more effective approach to helping people with change than pointing out its wrongness. Its not the easy path because individual or cultural emotional response to uncovering the payoff can be extreme resistance. Consultants who are fearless and patient enough to hold that space for clients to work through their resistance will recommend the transformational change befitting clients who can finally let go of the payoff that once served them well, but that did so in a world that no longer exists.

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Filed under: change leadership, counter-direction, culture, megatrends, multi-dimensional, self-awareness, shift, social business, VRM
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