Do you have the Big Mo?

Photo by Martin Weller

I have been thinking a lot lately about momentum.  John Maxwell in his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership has a chapter dedicated to The Law of the Big Mo.  Maxwell writes, “Momentum is a leader’s best friend.”  In other words, when you have it, things run more smoothly and with less effort a lot of great results are generated.  When you don’t have it, things run sluggishly and a great deal of energy is required to get very little results.

An illustration to help visualize this idea is that of pushing a heavy ball up a hill.  It is very very difficult to get the ball moving up toward the top.  Even the slightest footfall and the ball starts to roll back on the one pushing it up the hill.  When one finally crests the pick and the ball starts rolling down, it picks up speed to the point you can’t keep up with it.  This illustration is a lot like momentum.  When you don’t have it, you are pushing the ball up the hill.  When you do have it, the ball rolls freely and without effort.

This idea of momentum goes both ways as well.  If an organization is growing, productive and the people of the organization are excited amazing things can happen because of this momentum.  This kind of organization just goes from peak to peak in terms of success and excellence.  People on the outside are wondering what the secret is to this organizations success.  The answer is momentum.

At the same time an organization may have reached its peak and had a hiccup.  When this hiccup happened a downward trajectory was initiated and before anyone realized what had happened the organization went weeks, months and years in a downward spiral.  The further down they went the faster they organizations death would pick up.

Let’s imagine an organization that has negative momentum going for it right now.  Is it possible for that organization to change directions?  The answer is yes, but it is going to take a lot of work.  A great deal of energy is going to have to be spent to stop that big rock of momentum from going any further down the path of death.

The problem is that often times leadership spends so much energy stopping the ball from rolling down the hill that once they have it stopped, they no longer have energy to push it back up the hill.  The sad reality is it will require more energy to get the ball rolling the other direction than it did to stop the downward spiral.  If the organization, however, truly does wish to change course and direction, then it is possible.  Better days for their future can be experienced.  Momentum can shift and good possibilities can be experienced.

Will you be one to help an organization advance to better days?

Or will you be one who complains and knick-picks and generates negative momentum?

What will your legacy be?

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