Practical Inspiration: Burst Your Own Bubble

“Does he know logistics?”

So asks a prospective client about me. Now, I happen to have some experience working with the logistics industry. And what I’ve learned working with them (and others) is: in times of change, asking this question is like asking, “Can he handle what we used to be?” The question should be, “Can he help us get to where we need to be,” a question driven more by the personality of the CEO, the strength of the corporate culture, the company’s life cycle phase, and the aggressiveness of the company’s financial goals than the company’s industry.

Which is in flux and which is changing in real time.

Sure as God put little green apples on this earth, your industry will one day change. When it does, if you haven’t exposed yourself to new or different kinds of thinking, you could get stuck: as adapting in the moment will require you to absorb too much new information all at once. It’s common to freeze in this situation, and resort to the tried and true… not because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s comfortable.

Well, bad news: change is uncomfortable. Change forces you to face the unknown, which can be scary. If you’re comfortable and relaxed during times of change, rest assured, your eyes are closed.

To guard against walling yourself off from change when it comes knocking on your door, start reaching outside your industry or profession. Now. Today. Talk to others about what you do every day and ask them how they would handle it. If you’re in HR, say, get to know how finance thinks. How legal thinks. How technology thinks.

In fact, if you’re in an HR bubble, Victorio Milian has given you a tremendous head start by compiling a great, multi-disciplinary resource for you into a nifty little e-book called HR 101. Check it out!

Whatever you do, physically go outside your industry/profession to talk to people, too. Talk to friends, neighbors, strangers on elevators—everyone—and get accustomed to hearing others’ perspectives. Get out of your cube, walk down the hall, and introduce yourself to someone in a different part of the company. You don’t need a reason, just go.

(“But I’m an introvert!” Sounds like an excuse to me. What happened to “I can do anything I set my mind to”—don’t you tell yourself that, too? You can do this. Just take it one “Hi, how are you” at a time.)

When you become a decision-maker and find the game changing on you in real time, and find yourself in need of a new way of thinking to replace the one you’d been honing for years which suddenly went obsolete, you’ll be glad you took the time to build the relationships you’ll need now, before you need them.

Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.