Have you ever wondered when will you break through? When will this pay off? How much longer do I do this for and will it ever pay off? Will I ever lose that last couple of kilos?
There are 4 ‘mings to life’s cycles if you are evolving. Which one you are in or passing through is subject to you and can be different based on what project, goal or activity you chose to focus on.
Here is a brief overview of them and what each stage typically outlines. Once you establish where you are, you can understand the current scenario and it will bring clarity to what you may need to do next.
In a business context this development process mainly relates to Teams and how they come together with normally the Forming stage coming first, however, my observation with the recent COVID-19 event is that the Storm hit and hit hard and there was no time for Forming it was straight into survival mode and dealing with the Storm, while Forming new ideas at the same time and its still not over for some. The response has been varied and has affected individuals, their immediate relationships, families and businesses all having found, or hopefully soon to find, their new way of life and how they can continue.
Trust the below gives key take aways into helping navigate different times. Knowing where you are in the journey is half the challenge.
Storming:
Imagine a fire storm or tornado is ripping through you farm. You’ve seen those movies like Twister and Man of Steel where the storm touches down and wreaks havoc and strips the land of houses, barns, ploughs lines through crops and bought tractors in trees on the next farm. Completely decimating the way life was. More recent back home we have seen millions of hectares burnt out because of the fire storms. You are now in survival mode, you bunker down or flee to simply survive the storm knowing it will pass. What’s on the other side is not known.
Forming:
You come out of the bunker, or come back to your property because the fire storm just blazed through, in the case of Australians this last season and there is little or nothing left. A complete rebuild, start from scratch. While traumatic it can also be a time to reconsider your future plans and set yourself up from this point on to put you in good position to achieve these new ideas and goals. All being well you have insurance money and you start to plan the rebuild of your house, maybe its not as big as it was, kids have left home or you want to allocate some of the insurance money to new sheds and equipment to delivery on the new plan or direction. You have the chance to rethink and reset.
Norming:
This can be an exciting stage and uncomfortable at the same time. It’s previous routines that were in place may not be exactly the same and need refined to suit the new way things need to be done. Changes to routines can be disruptive and take some getting used to. They can be uncomfortable and take some time and conscious thought to establish. For businesses this maybe reset expectations across the core team, redefining job roles, managing to a new overhead, calibrating to a new pace that the business is moving at and becoming focused on the right opportunities and tasks to take the business in the new direction.
Performing:
The way has found a rhythm, a flow, you can see that you have traction again and can move with new confidence along your new direction. It’s usually done with less effort, more efficiently and less thinking because all the new people, infrastructure, tools, systems and processes are in place and everyone has learnt how to used them and navigate the new landscape. Exciting times for people and businesses who have been able to dust themselves off and get back into the game and have found momentum.
Which one of these stages are you at, or is your business at? Working out which stage you are in and overlaying that with the Hero Journey you are able to develop a plan to move on and move on in the right direction.
If you are interested in learning more about the 4 ‘mings and how they may help you, get in contact and hope to connect soon.
Stuart Keith
Dad's My Hero 