Healthy organizations grow and change.

These days change ramps up.  We grow and change at such a fast pace; it can be a bit unsettling.

Fastballs come faster.  Curveballs break sharper.  We increasingly find ourselves facing tougher challenges.  We increasingly make more mistakes as we try to keep pace.

Our mindset in the face of these challenges matters.  Sometimes we get overwhelmed and want to quit.  We regard the challenges as too hard.  Too big.  We drop out.

We all know people who have dropped out.  If we’re honest, we’ve all been people who drop out.

“Dropouts” don’t graduate.

Our mindset in these challenges needs to be as a “learner.”  Every time we have a challenge where we fall short, we have an opportunity to get better.

We do better in the face of challenges when we team up.  We need to steadfastly build trust with our teammates.  We need to include them and count on them when things get hard.

We do better in the face of challenges when we communicate.  Honest communication, where the goal is to define our issues realistically, is critical learning.  When the problem and issues are well defined, the solutions become apparent.

We do better in the face of challenges when we remain humble.  The humble never believe they know it all or have it all figured out.  They realize there is more to learn and to apply.  And they look to gather more knowledge and information any way they can.  When you are giving all the answers instead of asking the questions, humility has left the scene.

These are hectic times.  We encounter something new almost every day.  There is strength in teams learning and growing from our adversity.  We expect progress, not perfection.