New Year’s Day—for one brief moment we reflect on the past year and the potential of things to come.
Then the promises start. New Year’s resolutions are the manifestation of our hopes for the current year. They redefine our sense of purpose and give us direction. We recognize that dwelling on the past year’s events is reactive. Now is the time to be proactive.
Inevitably, we’ll make some type of resolution for the New Year. Often, as business people, we don’t challenge ourselves to make personal resolutions. We know what personal resolutions can mean. They can mean commitment to a new direction; an uncomfortable alternative we know is better for us but still hard to do.
This year, think about a new kind of resolution—one we can all stand behind without a huge amount of risk. This year, let’s resolve to be “fast followers.”
The resolution to be a fast follower primarily involves waiting until someone else proves a method actually works. All we have to do is watch for best practices in any of our respective disciplines and then follow the group that’s proven a best way to do things. Then just do it. Do what they did, in a different city or a different company. The key here is to look, follow, and then do it.
There’s a pitfall attached to this type of resolution. And, unfortunately, the pitfall is one we encounter all too often in our fair community. The pitfall is a loss of momentum. This loss of momentum occurs when we look at the best practice, and then study it to see if it will work for us.
For example, imagine I see someone eating apples from a tree. Sounds like a good idea, right? I approach the tree. Then I pick an apple, but instead of eating it I transport it back to the lab to see if it really is an apple. I analyze it to see if it will satisfy our nutritional needs and if it is, indeed, the best apple we could find. In the mean time, five other people have discovered the tree and are already enjoying the apples. If I had only adopted the fast follower resolution, I would be realizing the true benefits of the apples.
The moral of the story is, when you’re hungry and you see the other guy eating the apple, just eat the apple.
Here are some other great resolutions that, with a little bit of effort, will bring great rewards.
- I promise to be more optimistic. Vince Lombardi said, “The difference between a successful person and an unsuccessful person is not lack of strength, not lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” Central Illinois has some remarkable assets. We have powerful resources and hard workers. Will begins with optimism—hope that the future can be better than the past. Leaders must understand their limitations while embracing their potential. A great spirit of possibility is gaining momentum in central Illinois. Let’s not slow it down. Hang a small sign in your office that says, “It can be done.”
- I promise to think bigger. Dr. Larry Weinzimmer is preparing to do a study as part of the Vision 2020 project. Weinzimmer and several MBA students at Bradley University are preparing to identify key communities central Illinois should view as competition. This is important because it will help the central Illinois region realize our competition doesn’t lie in the near vicinity. Our competition comes from Colombus, Nashville, Madison, and others. It’s time for central Illinois to think realistically, and that means thinking big. If you need a little inspiration, bring an atlas or a globe to the office. Leave it out in a place that reminds you how big the world really is.
- Awareness—I promise to look around more. What’s going on in the competitive areas? What’s going on in the nation? What are the key industry trends? When you watch television, start to look at the backgrounds of the stories. What can we do to become a more competitive city? The name of the game is competitive intelligence. The EDC is ramping up to amass a wealth of competitive analysis—comparative information with which to measure success.
Are we ready for the future? The future of world business is changing rapidly. The leaders driving tomorrow’s growth companies will be like none we’ve seen before. These pacesetters will be young and fast. They might not look like us, and they don’t always act like us, but we need them. It will be up to us to give them the opportunity to make their way to central Illinois. If we want tomorrow’s jet-propelled companies and the quality jobs that they bring, we need to welcome their leaders and embrace the change that comes with them.
This New Year brings with it uncertainty. What is certain, however, is that things are moving in central Illinois. Make a resolution to change your outlook. Together, we can realize a groundbreaking New Year for central Illinois. IBI
