Are you frustrated with the lack of progress that your company is making? Does it seem that no matter how hard you try, you can’t get out of the rut? Do you ever wonder if it’s worth it? If so, then you’ve simply joined the crowd of dissatisfied people – those who are stuck and can’t figure out what to do next.

The “funny” thing is that it’s the way you think that is causing the problem; and so in order to go forward you, in a sense, have to go back. You have to go back to the beginning of what has led you to think the way you do.  

There are three very good reasons why you can’t seem to make any progress. They all rest in your assumptions. They are things that you know to be true.

The first one is that, whether you believe it or not, you aren’t innovative. When you think about your options, you feel constrained by the same things day in and day out. There’s another way to say that: It’s that you do what you do because that’s the way you’ve always done it.

No doubt, you shudder at the very idea. You would argue that you’re always willing to try new ideas, and that you do. But, you see that’s not the problem. The problem is that you filter out the things that don’t fit into the mould that you’ve created. If the solutions fit into it, then you try them. If not, then they’re rejected.

The second one is that no one else uses the solutions that you’ve been offered. This is the flip side of the first one. The first one says that you won’t consider anything “outside the box”, and the second says that none of your peers do either. The implication is that there’s a best way of doing it. The modern terminology is best practice, and to do anything else is considered to be folly. Since you don’t want to look like a fool, you ignore options where you risk doing so.

The third one is that you’re afraid to do something other than what the market leader does. Again, you may refute this; but consider your approach. How often do you wait to see what that company does first? How often do you let them set the standard, and then benchmark yourself against it?

If any of these things pervades your thinking, then you are holding your company back by making false assumptions. If you change your assumptions, then you are free to consider all other options. In other words, it’s what you believe to be true that is holding you back. And so you must set aside what you “know” and think about what you could do if these things weren’t true.

That’s how real progress is made, and history is filled with examples to prove it. When George Stephenson invented the train, there were those who said that man wasn’t intended to go more than 15 miles per hour. The assumption was that people weren’t so supposed to go faster than a horse could carry them. When the Wright brothers started flying, there were those who said that if man was supposed to fly, then he would’ve been born with wings. These people assumed that all travel should be on the ground. When the Internet was made available to the public, there were those who said that it was only a passing fad. These people shunned technology. They didn’t want things they understood to change into those that they did not.

Real progress is made by those who are willing to do what no one else is doing; who aren’t afraid to buck the status quo; who believe that everyone else is wrong. It’s only when you act according to these convictions that you move have a chance of being the front runner.

Sherlock Holmes once said that, “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.” What’s obvious to you? What do you need to question?

Start by challenging your assumptions, and then see where it leads.