Small change: pick your problems

Life, suggested Carl Jung, can be understood as a series of decisions about which problems we tackle, and which we try to ignore.

These choices carry consequences. Several years ago we encountered a CFO. “There are certain rocks I choose not to look under, for fear of what will crawl out,” he said. Two years later, we discovered that his business had ended up under water.

To go to work each day is to open the aperture on a kaleidoscope of troubles. Picking the ones that you will spend time and money colliding with is an essential skill of change leadership.

When making these choices, it is worth remembering that difficult problems tend not to get better with age.

Something to consider: if we buy this course of action now, where might we pay later?

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