When I take my son to basketball practice during the week, every now and then Ali Taktak stops my son before going into the gym and gives him some words of advice. You might ask, “Who is Ali Taktak?” Ali is the Mr. Texas bodybuilding champion for 2017 and 2018. The most often asked question from Ali to my son is, “Have you been doing your push-ups everyday”?
The difference between successful Transformations and those that are struggling, is how much organizational Transformation Muscle they have. Every company doesn’t need Ali Taktak muscle, but being that a Transformation is a journey, every company needs to start their journey with a consistent regimen of organizational push-ups.
Based on the multitude of Transformations that I have seen firsthand, I akin the commitment to organizational push-ups as being like two factors. These two factors are necessary ingredients to start the organization in the right direction to start building real muscle. First, is right mindset within leadership. The leadership mindset must be one that is committed to continuous learning and an openness to experimentation and innovation. Second, is persistent communication from leadership. If there isn’t a dedicated effort for continuous communication to the organization from leadership, the organization will fill in the gaps with its own thinking, ultimately leading to mistrust.
Once the commitment to organizational push-ups have proved itself as being a staple discipline, we need to go beyond push-ups into more advanced training. The more advanced training can be looked at muscle training like weight lifting that enables the body to build stability and stamina to exert the energy needed to start the body towards a major Transformation. This advanced muscle training is similar to the skill training and coaching that is specific to achieving the organizations Transformation goals.
Let’s make a New Year’s resolution to start building our Transformation muscles!