Effortless Excellence sounds like an oxymoron, yet it’s perfectly possible for you – and your organisation – to achieve, if you’re willing to give your mindset, systems and processes an overhaul.

When our brain senses a threat we activate our primitive, reactionary brain and organisations are no different. If you or your organisation are stuck in a reactionary rut, these three steps will enable you to become clear-minded, responsive and highly effective.

Recognise

Often there’s a particular issue that’s taking up your headspace and making work seem harder than it needs to be. The first step towards Effortless Excellence is transparently looking at the obstacles in your current thinking, systems and processes, and understanding the real and the root causes.

• Real causes: our versions of reality are very different, so invite multiple perspectives, especially those you most disagree with. Become curious and listen to understand, rather than to reply.
• Root causes: understand what’s beneath the symptoms you’ve identified, from a people, process and systems perspective.

Undo

When we are triggered by someone’s behaviour (at work or at home), we have a belief or perception about them that we insist is true. This unquestioned thinking costs us. Consider what story you have made up about him or her. How else you could usefully think about them?

Rather than doing more, consider how your systems and processes can be simplified. Whilst genuine complexity can be fine with the right mindset, making things overly complicated is not. Do the work to simplify and be bold in removing unnecessary complications.

Take Action

When we’ve been triggered by something someone has said or done, we tend to react, and feel the urge to take immediate action. This is rarely productive. Do the work to get your emotional state resourceful and your mind clear before taking any action, so that it is both effective and productive.

Taking action can be overwhelming, with lots to implement and complex changes to make. Ditch the overwhelm by prioritising one key issue, listing solutions, then focusing on only those you can implement within a month. You will be surprised the impact this shift in momentum gives your organisation.

The immediate rewards of overhauling your mindset, processes and systems will enable you to move out of your rut, and create impetus towards Effortless Excellence. No action always equals no real change, so don’t miss the opportunity to begin climbing out of your rut today.