You look at models successful companies use and you decide your business is going to adopt the same model. If it worked for them, it must work for you, right? Months or even years after switching to this new prototype, however, you simply aren’t experiencing the same results as these successful companies. A lot of factors play into the outcome of an organization, including circumstances, leadership, work environment, and even location. One key element, however, that you might be overlooking is the motive behind the newly adopted model. Let’s discuss.
The motive, or reason, behind any goal or agenda significantly influences the outcome. For example, a professional marathoner trains to compete at an elite level. The goal for her is to run faster at her next big marathon. Her methods incorporate multiple high level workouts a week, hours of injury prevention routines, and logging a hundreds of miles. She’s a successful runner. Another runner decides to adopt her training schedule. For weeks, he hammers lengthy workouts and countless miles. Yet, come race day, his time hasn’t improved at all. Why? Excluding all the extraneous factors, the major difference between the marathoner and the runner is the ulterior motive. This runner is training just to train. He has not defined the reasoning behind all of his hard work. Without that clearly defined agenda, the purpose for all that labor disappears in the training process. The same happens to companies when they adopt a model, but don’t identify the motive behind making the change.
Before making a considerable switch in your workplace, set aside time to clearly lay out the reasoning behind the switch. Do your research about the motives behind the model you are planning to adopt. What was this successful company trying to accomplish? Does that align to your own company’s mission? Additionally, set up a plan to implement the switch and evaluate to predict if the new model will actually work at your business. Some models simply won’t work based off all those external factors mentioned earlier. Any change poses some risks to an organization. If you’re looking to make an adjustment at your company, however, that risk doesn’t have to be uncalculated and messy. Take the time to define the “whys” and your company might just exceed all planned expectations.