Erik Van Alstine

Erik Van Alstine

Author. Leadership strategist. Expert in Perceptual IntelligenceTM.

Orange Cones

Change is a process that takes longer than we expect. Things often get worse before they get better.

Which means we get discouraged and often quit too soon.

A friend of mine owns a repair shop on Canyon Road near where I live. For a couple years, Canyon Road was being reworked into six lanes, and it almost ruined his business. There were orange construction cones and dirt everywhere.

But now, a couple years later, he’s in prime position to succeed. Lots of customer traffic. Everything is brand new and bustling.

In the middle of that two year process, he was discouraged. But that’s what it took to set him up for the next level, the better business opportunity.

Corporate leaders deal with this same problem when trying to change their businesses, whether it be a business process, or a new line of business, or a corporate culture change. It gets worse before it gets better, and some can’t handle the process. Culture change takes several years, for example, and many companies can’t change because they’re not willing to put out orange cones for that long.

People trying to get in shape run into orange cones and discouragement. Imagine saying, “I’ve been working out for two days now and haven’t seen any results!” If we expect too much progress too soon, we’ll get discouraged. Which is what most people do.

I see this same long-term process in improving my golf game. Right now I’m a 1 handicap, which is super good. I’m just coming out of a three-year process of reworking my swing, so that my technique is solid for the years ahead. I invested an entire winter just to get my hip-turn right, and a several years of monthly lessons to correct my problems. The orange cones were out everywhere, and I was discouraged. I was doing things wrong, and they needed to change.

But I couldn’t just snap my fingers and change things. I had to break every bad habit and rebuild good habits.

Now, it’s paying off. Just last month I won a local tournament. Last summer I shot my first round in the sixties, a 69 at The Home Course in Dupont, Washington. I’m playing better than I ever have. It just took three years of confusion and disappointment and mayhem.

The key is to change our expectations. Get a longer view. If you really want to change things, from changing your marriage, to your career, to your business, to your golf game. You’ve got to be ready for a long dirty process. Learn to love the orange cones, and expect things to get worse before they get better.

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