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Driving Change? Start With Agreement

High performance leaders are constantly leading new projects, asking people to change and MAKE changes. These are seldom easy tasks.

Getting people to change requires their support. If you've ever been in charge of a project, you know that all too well. People resist. People dig in. People ignore your pleads to please pull in the opposite direction. That's because a new direction is hard. It's fraught with unseen obstacles and traps. It's unfamiliar. Change stinks.

But change is necessary and it is fundamentally what high performance leaders do: drive change. Where do you start?

Start with agreement. Get people to agree on as many things as you can leading to whatever change is necessary. Get them to agree to listen. Get them agree to talk. Get them to agree to the need and POSSIBILITY of change.

Agreeing to possibilities smoothes the way, AND -- agreements lead to better possibilities. High performance don't have to come up with all the best ideas, they simply must make its possible for those ideas to emerge.

Get agreement, and support will follow.

-- Doug Smith


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