Four Rules for This Disruptive Age

You want certainty. You want to know that what you are doing is working now and will continue to work in the future. What you really want is a sustainable competitive advantage. But there is no longer any “sustainable” in competitive advantage. The last thing you can expect in this disruptive age is certainty.

Here are four rules for this disruptive age.

Be Agnostic

You might hate an idea. You might have tried some idea in the past and failed. You might hate some new process, some new methodology, or some new “new” thing. You’d be happier with the tried and true, predictable, repeatable process that ensures you work consistently and produce equally consistent results. Yeah, good luck with that.

The first rule is to take new ideas where you find them.

Be agnostic. Don’t reflexively judge ideas. The idea you hate might very well be the idea you need right now. There is no right or wrong idea. There are effective choices and ineffective choices. What was once ineffective might now be effective, and vice versa. So be agnostic.

Be Flexible

“But that’s the way we’ve always done it.”

“This is the only way we do this for our clients.”

Let not these words escape your lips!

You live in a disruptive age. Guess what? Your clients live in this disruptive age, too.

Just because you’ve done something a certain way in the past doesn’t mean that’s what you are going to deliver now—or in the future. You’re going to have to be especially flexible in delivering what your clients want.

Be flexible in what you do, and be flexible in how you do it. If you want to retain your dream clients, this is what’s going to make that possible.

Be Adaptive

The more successful you are, the easier it is to become rigid. You might want to avoid the conflict and stress that accompanies change. But avoiding the conflict and stress that comes with change isn’t adaptive behavior; it’s mal-adaptive.

Succeeding (or surviving even) requires that you face the challenges that confront you. You deal with the conflict, the stress, and the constraints head on. You attack them and adapt to your changing environment.

Be open to new ideas. When new tools are developed, adopt them into your practice. When new methodologies are developed, explore them and find ways to incorporate what works in your sales game.

Adapt.

Be Courageous

Have the courage to change. Embrace the change. It isn’t enough to accept that things are changing. That’s too passive. Those who survive and succeed are those with the courage to embrace the disruption.

And it will take courage.

Questions

What’s changing in your world?

What no longer works?

What changes make you uncomfortable? How can you embrace those changes?

What’s changing in your client’s world? How can you better serve them based on their new wants and needs?

Who do you have to become to be more adaptive to change?