So where's home? Back to prosperity, back to feeling good, back to not feeling threatened. Back to safety. Back to growth.
Remember Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz? She wanted to leave home and then spent the whole movie trying to get back home. And Wow.... It seems like everyone has escaped to the storm cellar like Dorothy's family in the Wizard of Oz. We're riding out the poor economy and waiting for something to happen. And some of us are Dorothy, wandering around and searching for the way to get back "home"
This is especially bad since we forgot our growth skills when the economy was booming and we didn't need them. What I sense now is that we've lost confidence.
Let's get back to what makes things grow.... starting with the most prolific growers on the planet: trees.
Trees grow by putting out extensive root systems to gather solid nutrients and oxygen from the soil, also water. They deliver these nutrients through a cellular distribution system to bud clusters that create new branches on the outer part of the tree. The tree makes food for itself by reaching for the light (photosynthesis). Trees devote 80% of their total energy to creating "meristem" cells: intense areas of growth in two areas: 1. Bud clusters that create new branches and 2. Cells on the outer part of the cambium, or the core of the tree that distribute nutrients to the rest of the tree, especially the bud clusters... the most intense areas of growth.
Let's make a parallel to that with your organization.
Solid nutrients and oxygen = getting knowledge
Water = Inspiration from hanging around the right people
Reaching for the light = reaching for the truth about customers, how they run their business, how they need to run their business and how you can help them
So I ask you... what new things are you and your people learning to do? Who are you hanging around or learning from to learning new things and get inspired? What questions do you have of customers and how are you investigating what customers need? How are you getting better and getting your message out to customers? How are you learning to use resources better with your knowledge and inspiration "distribution" system that allocates resources to these areas?
Make like a tree. Put down some roots into learning how to do new things, get into new markets, learn about customers, learn how technology can increase productivity, improve cash flow, improve your marketing, get your message out to customers.
Get out of the storm cellar. The storm is not what you think it is. The economy won't return to save the day, but you can make your own "day".
Growth is all about making the unknown known. Whatever it is that you don't know about your markets, or don't' know how to do, learn it. The unknown is your friend. It is the key to growth.
Dorothy, after all, found out that it wasn't the wizard that was going to take her "home" at all. It was within her to do that for herself all the time.
Make like a tree. Somebody holds the key: You.
Take it Steve. Take us Home.
Steve Winwood: Can't Find My Way Home
Come down off your throne
And leave your body alone
Somebody must change
You are the reason
I've been waiting so long
Somebody holds the key
Well, I'm near the end and I just ain't got the time
Well, I'm wasted and I can't find my way home
Come down on your own
And leave your money at home
Somebody must change
You are the reason
I've been waiting all these years
Somebody holds the key
I'm near the end, and I just ain't got the time
Oh, and I'm wasted, and I can't find my way home
But I can't find my way home
But I can't find my way home
But I can't find my way home
But I can't find my way home
Still, I can't find my way home
And, I ain't done nothing wrong
But, I can't find my way home
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