The “Active Waiting” Strategy: Thriving on Change
What’s the best strategy for personal, business, or career growth in a rapidly-changing world? What’s Priacta up to right now? The same answer addresses both questions. This quick article will give you an instant life, productivity, and business skill and provide insight into our company.
As innovation and better communication accelerate the pace of change, how do you survive and even thrive? To find the answer, first recognize that programs (specific approaches) change, but principles (fundamental truths packaged for application) remain more-or-less invariant. Look for correct principles and live by them.
Here’s one powerful principle for success in a sea of change.
Golden Opportunities, Sudden Threats
Donald Sull’s 2005 Harvard Business Review article (“Strategy as Active Waiting“) points out that golden opportunities are essential to success. However, they come rarely and you can’t force them. You can only 1) watch for them, actively scanning the horizon, 2) prepare so you have resources to seize them as they arise, then 3) commit those resources at the right moment.
Simple, powerful, relaxed strategy. However, timing is everything. Windows of opportunity open and close quickly, so you have to be ready, you have to act fast, and you also have to choose your opportunities carefully.
Donald also points out that sudden threats also arise and have to be addressed head on or else. In my experience, threats and opportunities appear simultaneously with increasing frequency. Innovate or languish. Apply now or other job candidates will do it instead. That’s the nature of competition, and competition, in business, creates a better world for everyone. Compare the level of service you receive from many government agencies with the level of service you receive from companies in highly competitive markets. Which do you prefer?
So how do you prepare and respond to these opportunities and threats? [Click here to read the rest of the article...]