Challenging the "it's always been done this way" mentality
Last week, I shared that I’ve been making difficult choices about how I spend my time. I’ve recognized that if I want to bring important projects—such as my second book—to life, I need to make some necessary endings.
The process has brought me to another important realization.
Often, I’ve found myself with the hours available to work on something that’s important to me but not the brainpower or energy. It’s like, I made the time, but I feel too mentally tapped out to do anything with it. Does that ever happen to you?
I wanted to get to the heart of why that happens, so, just as I reflected on how I could free up my time, I went through the same reflection with my mental capacity.
The reason quickly became clear to me: I do a lot of speaking events (about 200 a year), and each event comes with its own set of details. Cheyenne, our Chief of Operations, supports me by helping me tackle all of the logistics (things like where I need to be and when), but when it comes to the content for each session, that’s on me. I am responsible for coming up with outlines for my sessions, key takeaways, and drafts of any written materials we might need, such as workbooks.
The thing about me is that I am not naturally a details person. My strengths are in the big picture: the vision, the strategy, and making sure we reach the end goal. Being involved in the content deliverables and deadlines for each of my events keeps me stuck in the details in a way that really stretches me. It also takes up a lot of space in my brain.
This isn’t the first time I’ve recognized this about myself. It’s just that, in the past, I didn’t see a way to change it. I want to be involved in every part of the content process. Not only do I feel personally responsible for the content I teach, but I also think that my presence in the process leads to a great experience for our clients and really helps set me up for success during the event. If I disconnected myself from all of that, it would be much harder to do my job well.
I had a dilemma: I love being a part of the process, and also, I knew I needed to free up some mental capacity to work on my book. So, I decided to challenge myself. I thought about how I might be able to approach my content process differently so that I could remain highly involved with our clients while not being the keeper of every detail.
I started by examining the current process, which at the time was this: I have a call with the client where we talk about their goals for the event. Then, I create drafts of an outline for the session, key takeaways, and any written materials we might need. Once I have all of that, I turn over the drafts to Rachel, who is our Chief of Content. Rachel makes edits and additions and gets everything in the right format, and we go back and forth until I think it’s ready to be delivered to the client.
This was our process for years. And because we had been doing it for so long, I had never stopped to think about whether we could make it better.
When I finally did think about it, I realized that I was overwhelmed by having to create the drafts by myself. I often have stacked days with lots of meetings or travel. It can be hard to find time to create the drafts, which meant that all of the details would just sit in my notes and in my brain, and I would keep thinking about them until I finally had a chance to write them down. And because it was on me to take the next step so that Rachel could do her part, I would feel the stress that comes when others are waiting on you so that they can take action.
So, I thought: What if I reversed the process?
I started to imagine a process where Rachel was responsible for creating the rough draft of each piece of content. If Rachel joined me for the meetings with the clients, then she and I could have a quick debrief after each one where I shared my vision for what the content should be. Then, she could go off and create a draft based on that. After that, I could work from her starting point instead of the other way around. Doing so would help me remove the details from my brain faster and relieve me of the stress of taking the first step, which meant that both of us could make a lot of momentum a lot more quickly.
The week after I came up with this idea, Rachel and I happened to be together in person at one of my speaking events, so I pitched it to her over dinner. I was upfront about my fears: I didn’t want to mess up a process that worked, and asking Rachel to join all of my content meetings would take up a lot more of her time, which could affect her other work. Plus, it might mean that things would get messy for a bit while we figured out our new way. Even with all of that, I still wanted to try it.
Rachel understands how much I have on my plate at any given time and she knows her strength is in the details, so she was really open to trying the new process. We agreed to keep communication open during our experiment so that if something didn’t feel right for either of us, we could address it right away.
And now . . . here we are, months into our new system. It’s been a total game-changer. I feel like I have so much more room in my brain! It’s so nice to know that Rachel is in charge of taking the first steps to help us get off the ground—which is her sweet spot—and that I can focus on continuing to maximize the content, which is mine.
I could say that I can’t believe we didn’t implement this sooner, but I know why we didn’t. It’s the same reason that you’ve probably fallen back on before, too: When a process gets the job done, we rarely stop to question it. We might also be afraid to burden others or make things feel chaotic, even if only temporarily. In the past, that fear would have stopped me from trying a new way. I’m glad it didn’t this time.
I hope this example shows why it’s important to question the things we do out of habit. When we have the courage to get curious about things—especially the things that we’ve always done a certain way—we give ourselves the chance to build a better reality for ourselves and others. Even if it gets messy, we often end up in a much better place than we started.
Can you think of something that isn’t broken but could be better? What do you think is preventing you from approaching it differently? Are you up against the “this is how we’ve always done it” mentality in your organization? How do you think you can challenge that? Hit “reply” and tell me more!
Big hugs,
