Competing Commitments

Often times with many issues and topics we find ourselves intensely committed to creating change.  However, even in spite of our best efforts and intentions, many times we fall short.  Millions of Americans vow every December 31st that "starting tomorrow" they'll get in shape, lose weight, quit smoking, and scores of other various commitments.  Many people stay staunchly devoted towards their pledges for weeks, months, yet rarely permanently. 

Why is it that so often we fail to make the changes we commit to?  When we allow our commitments to fail, it is usually due in large part to competing commitments that we unknowingly have stronger allegiances to.  In the case of New Year’s resolutions, we may have competing commitments to not embarrass ourselves through failure, commitments of time that get in the way, or commitments of self satisfaction that end up being too much to overcome.  Sometimes this may be conscious or subconscious.  The key in overcoming these competing commitments is to become conscious of our competing commitments and to assess why the complimentary assumptions aren’t necessarily relevant and can be overcome.

In my first blog post I detailed my desire to research the possibility of and potentially implement a green roof at my employers main manufacturing facility.  As part of the process to garner the change necessary to implement this commitment, I’ve gathered data, researched the costs and benefits of the project, and begun to put together a presentation to pitch the idea to the leadership in my organization.  Despite the progress I’ve made on the project to date, I’ve hit a road block and have somewhat stalled currently.

I’ve realized that many people in my organization do not share the same environmental standards and goals for sustainability that I do.  Because of this, I’ve also come to realize competing commitments of my own that are preventing my progress in moving forward on the green roof implementation.  On an informal level, I’ve discussed the project with certain leadership members of my organization and have received subtle resistance to the ideas for the project.  Because of this, I currently hold the assumptions that others within my organizations leadership may also hold resistant opinions.  Due to these assumptions I understand that I hold a competing commitment with my fear in wasting my political capital within my organization if my idea is rejected.

Revealing my competing commitment and big assumptions may serve to help me in my work going forward.  By identifying these issues, I may better be able to see the missteps of the commitment to the competition.  By being aware of these assumptions and alternate commitments, it helps to start to identify measures that may allow me to overcome fears associated with the assumptions.

In efforts to move past this road block, I plan to foster thought partnership through active listening.  I plan to try to once again meet informally with the individual who was resistant to my idea for change.  My plan is to ask what reservations they may have towards my change initiative and find out all of the potential issues that they believe may not be in the best interest of the organization.  After actively listening to the individuals issues, I’ll relay back to them what I heard from them to ensure we are on the same page and then after the meeting I’ll put together the list of issues and begin to work towards a solution to address each.  Fully understanding these issues is the key to finding measures that will help me to overcome the fears associated with my competing commitments and will help me to help others move past their assumptions that hold them back from change as well.