The Role of Faith

No, this post is not about religion (at least in the formal definition).

I had a fascinating week last week; speaking with a group of CEOs in Eau Claire, WI and meeting with a prospective (and now) client.  The conversations were all about new business growth and new initiatives to support that growth.

It’s an exciting time right now as companies are actively engaged in their business development activities.

The challenge we all face lies in the knowledge that yesterday’s activities are not enough to achieve our desired results tomorrow.  We know we have to do things differently, but how do we know what will work?

I had this exact conversation with my client last week.  As we were talking about The INTELLIGENT GROWTH Blueprint™, he wanted to know how he could be sure that this approach would work, when what they’ve tried in the past wouldn’t.  By this point, we had fully diagnosed his current situation and I had shared our philosophy for growth.

So I told him, “At some point, you have to have faith; faith in us and faith in the approach.  If you don’t have faith, there isn’t much chance anything new will work, because you’ll give up on anything once it starts getting tough.”

The faith I’m talking about is often called inductive reasoning – taking “logical leaps of faith.”  I wrote about this when I reviewed The New Design of Business.  Simply put, you cannot prove something new will work, until it does.

Admittedly, this is tough; it’s the “art” part of business.  But it is absolutely necessary to grow in the future.

What role does faith play in your strategy?