Page 18 - Benjamin Franklin\'s The Way to Wealth: A 52 brilliant ideas interpretation - PDFDrive.com

leading to a classic management/union stand-off. Nobody attempted to go to
the journalists and explain that the real gain was our own individual
productivity and employability in the future. Everyone got caught up over
whether we should be paid for the sweat; nobody extolled the beauty of the
svelte and desirable souls we would become (I’m talking figuratively here—
if you’ve ever seen an office full of journalists you’ll know that).

You don’t have to have a large unionised workforce to run into cultural
resistance to expansion. Resistance to change usually comes in one of two
forms—active and passive. It’s normal to see active resisters as being the
enemy. They’re not. Your real problem is the passive resisters who mentally
fold their arms and say ‘make me’. Small enterprises are just as susceptible
as larger ones, too, though often more subtly so. The classic person to
overlook is yourself and your own resistance. With growth comes the need
to delegate more and micromanage less, so you may feel a sense of losing
your grip on your own company. Fail to deal with that pain and you will
never realise the gain, which is one of the key factors why so many sole
traders and family businesses never grow any further.

HERE’S AN IDEA FOR YOU…
Don’t stand up and tell people they have to change or it will become
personal. Instead start by explaining that the change is best practice
learnt from others and find the people most open to that idea. Now
make them change stewards/agents and recruit their help instead of
going it alone.