8 small changes for a big impact

Right now there is a pervasive feeling of lethargy in the air. A sense of bleurgh. A belief that our get-up-and-go has truly upped-and-gone. Put it down to pandemic tedium, the fact we’re slap bang in the middle of winter or tied to the treadmill of elusive success. Whatever the cause, our Untapped.ai platform is showing us that workers are languishing in a state of inertia, often too overwhelmed to tackle the tasks ahead, too weary to wonder if there might be another way…

Rather than detonate this current exhausted mindset, potentially shaking life to its core until it becomes unrecognisable, we encourage our clients to move towards making changes in small, incremental steps. It’s the accessible but influential acts of agency that really make a significant difference, resulting in empowered and embedded behaviour, long term positive thinking and increased self-awareness.

1. Consistency is key. If you build routines or regular habits into your lifestyle, they will soon become your normal. Making a commitment to a fixed time, approach or action means you will be more likely to stick with it too.

2. Belief in the power of modest moderations. Gregory Bateson, an anthropologist who wrote a book in the early 1970s called Steps to an Ecology of Mind, talked about a ‘difference that makes a difference. It might be the slightest difference in your behaviour, understanding or mindset, but it ends up being hugely meaningful to the overall movement forward.

3. ‘Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step,’ Lao Tzu (Chinese philosopher). Break down the task ahead into more manageable specifics. If you can achieve these building blocks and recognise the value of their accumulative effect, you will be galvanised to reach the end goal.

4. Understand what you can control and what you cannot. There is no benefit in attempting to influence a situation that is impossible to change.

5. Be flexible. If a new approach isn’t working, acknowledge that it may be time to re-set the process for better progress.

6. Think about the impact of change behaviour on others. By modelling good practice, you can determine company culture, encourage colleagues to stand alongside, build trust, open up conversations, invite vulnerability, create innovation – and a whole load more of positive transformation!

7. You might want to share with others (family, friends, colleagues) that you are working on making changes to your setup. It keeps them aligned to what is going on with you, and it can also shed light on the fact that some people feel threatened by the changes you are making. Perhaps it throws up some difficult stuff about their own behaviour?

8. Don’t be knocked back when your plans go askew. Any change, however small, may not always be a straightforward end result. It’s okay to take some detours along the way.