By Steve Moran

Life is hard, the world is constantly changing, and very often what worked before or what worked for others doesn’t work anymore — or at least does not work well anymore. You are faced with three choices:

  1. Give up.
  2. Keep on keeping on.
  3. Change direction.

Sometimes the first choice is in fact the right choice. While at one time, video rental stores were the hottest business to be in, today not so much. (Though it turns out that there are still a few places in the country where they do exist; I Googled it). It is all about cutting your losses and finding something better to do.

Keep On Keeping On

I am part of a not-for-profit organization — okay … a church — that seems hellbent on persisting with their “keeping on” strategy even though it is clearly not working. When I was talking with one of the leaders, he told me that “they just wanted to start small” so it is a good thing.

Honestly?

If you are a church and your goal is to improve people’s lives and you are just barely impacting someone, is “starting small” really the right thing to do, or is it just an excuse to not change direction?

Keeping On — Senior Living

Over and over again, I see senior living organizations, senior living leaders, completely focused on doing the same thing over and over, even though it is not working. Hoping that the age wave will get here in time, hoping the economy will turn around, hoping there will be a bunch of government money.

Keeping On — Not Everyone

There are senior living communities and senior living organizations that looked around and said, “The old way is not working.” They held onto the things that were working and changed up the things that were no longer working (or in some cases never worked). It does not mean it is easy for them. It is still a tough operating environment, inflation is crushing, staffing remains challenging, and they are fighting for every new resident, but it all works.

The Change Risk

Don’t get me wrong, there is risk in changing direction. It might make things worse faster, but even if it does, you will learn some things, including the reality that you may need to change even again. And if it all blows up, better now than later so you can get on with something else.

It is way more likely you will end up regretting doing nothing or doing the same old thing more than you will regret going for it.