Stuck

It's March 8, 2010. 25 years ago today, my family changed. 25 years later, in spite of having every reason to embrace that change and grow from it, we haven't. Change is difficult but that's not news. For us, clearly there wasn't enough of an impetus to move us forward to a new reality and far too much anchoring us to the status quo. The end result: loss. We lost time and ultimately, whatever will I had to champion change and move us into a new, more productive direction.

This kind of 'sticking' isn't just for families or individuals. Business examples also abound. There's Toyota. Here's a company that has already had to recall hundreds of thousands of cars for sticky gas pedals, but daily it seems, more troubles come to light. Yesterday, March 8 2010, a Toyota Prius in California went rogue racing out of control at speeds over 90 mph, completely unresponsive to owner's frantic application of the brakes. The car was eventually stopped with no loss of life, but given that this Prius model was not on the extensive recall list of just last month, one has to wonder how many more cars may yet have this problem. Toyota though, stands by its fixes and insists that no electronic problems exist. Stuck.


Think too of the US Auto industry. Here is an industry that has been caught up in its own version of the world for years. Stuck. With their well-paid lobbyists and access to the halls of power, they chose not to think more aggressively about improving gas mileage or decreasing harmful emissions. There was no need or was there? The end result of course we all know: loss of market position and a need to come, cap in hand, to Washington to beg for a lifeline. Stuck and stuck on the wrong things.  Through a lack of foresight these and other businesses have gone from being front runners in their markets to being 'also rans'. 

As a consequence of not being able to see the world outside and, more importantly, bring that outside in and take it into account as decisions are being made, these companies were overtaken and in some cases almost driven entirely out of business. Whether it is a family or a corporation, the end result of this inability to see beyond the prison of one's reality is real and potentially catastrophic.

I'm working on getting unstuck before catastrophe strikes. Are you?