Please clear your mind of all the other stuff and for the next few moments to imagine the following. Someone you know has a "silver bullet" for your career and/or business. They've tested a process that has worked profitably to boost careers and bottom line results at locations like yours in states from Mexico to Canada, which could work in other nations too with the needed local adaptations.

Since you are eager for growth and want to move past the treading water level – or wherever level you happen to be at – to strong, thriving advancement. So you are open to learning from almost any source for your "silver bullet."

However in this case, there is a problem. The person who is doing the teaching and has the breakthrough methods just happens to be someone you can't stand.

Ouch.

Or how about this other scenario

Picture the same set up as before. You want to advance, the team/location/company you are at wants to surge ahead. There is just one problem. Everyone wants a better result, but without having to really do anything differently.

Sound familiar?

The last one, of course, is the classic 'popular' definition of insanity. To keep doing thing things the same ways, but to expect a different result.

Or to put it differently, wishing is not a plan or a strategy.

Learning and applied knowledge are the most reliable “silver bullet.”  FYI, the illustrations above are meant only as ways to dramatize the fact that there should be no excuses for striving to learn and grow routinely in a career or organization.

The One Constant

Change is inevitable. Your body is changing moment by moment, a scientific fact that has been true since the moment of your conception and will continue to be true your whole life, continuing even after you die. Its as if the body itself is telling you, accept change. So work with change, embrace it.

The 'enemy' issue reflects something more subtle. It is exactly as easy as accepting change. Both of these scenarios – and all others you can imagine – begin with a person's attitude!

The old maxim that "Attitude determines your Altitude" is amazingly true. Right beside it is the willingness to have an open mind to new ideas, ways and possibilities.

At the recent 2013 National Communities Council (NCC division of MHI) Fall Forum, attendees were treated to a series of new, unique or different ways to advance using technology, programs and researched ideas. This routinely happens at such events, or at corporate annual meetings.

But Air Force and other research has shown that the vast majority of people don't change unless they immediately begin implementing it, and continue to get those changes reinforced. Look at this quote from an Air Force white paper on learning and training (the Air Force white paper is downloadable, linked here).

“A systematic and holistic approach is necessary to provide the right education, training and experiences at the right time, to enable this outcome. Learning is life-long and can be driven by either Air Force requirements (operational or force development) or individual learner needs and desires. Formal and informal learning can be tailored to each Airman and delivered through precision learning means when, where and how required. Training, education, and experiential learning power continuous learning. Whether through formal or informal methods, the Air Force must use these means to develop the appropriate combination of specialists and generalists to meet mission requirements…Developing uninterrupted access to Air Force knowledge for all Airmen will be the final ingredient to effective continuous learning.”

Not just in the Air, but Learning with individual and Team Practice on the Ground

Imagine the pro football team that would have one orientation and one practice before the start of the pre-season. No more practice, no more watching game film the rest of the year. Expect any team that would be foolish enough to try it to rapidly fall behind all of the rest before the year is up.

Yet isn't that what happens in so many careers, offices, locations and companies? They start out on something new. That new idea is told once. And some want to believe that will be enough for the rest of the year? Or forever?

That isn't how it worked for learning in kindergarten, where you went over the same basic thing until you got it, right? Even as a youth, you used the new knowledge routinely until it became engrained.

You could say the same for learning in grade school, high school, or in college or grad school. Or If you learn a new language, you must first learn and then "use it or lose it."

As they say in France, "C'est la vie!" "Such is life."

When I began my career in manufactured housing sales in 1981, the company I started with had no formal training process. Here are the keys, the inventory sheet, credit application, purchase order, there are the homes. "Go get 'em Tiger!"

Swell. But the pressure was on me if I wanted to perform. I could have pointed fingers at the manager or company, blaming others. Or I could suck it up, grab knowledge any way I could and apply it until it worked for me in order to succeed. That's the choice we all have.

A Positive, Can Do Attitude. Or a negative one. We pick one or the other daily.

A willingness to learn from anyone, even that person we don't care for or worse still, who doesn't care much for you. A willingness to change, adapt and grow. A willingness to go right while the herd is going left. These are the keys to success in any career, be it in manufactured housing or any another.

What All Pros Need

We provide articles, news, tips and ideas here on MHProNews.com from the widest array of professionals this industry has ever had in a single trade publication. We invite, share and encourage a variety of perspectives from any thoughtful pro. That's done precisely for sharing that knowledge widely to anyone willing to learn.  It is a free and easy way to get started on the path to advancement.

Reading articles in the now defunct Manufactured Home Merchandiser Magazine was a lifeline for me when I began selling for that company that invested nothing in training. Those magazines were tossed onto the coffee table, so 'customers could look at them' if they wanted to do so. True story. But that and books from outside our industry, audio and training sessions I personally invested in allowed me to learn and advance.

If a simple guy like me who knew nothing about manufactured housing could learn to do it by reading, observing, testing, etc., then you and your team can too.

But as the quote above wisely observes and illustrates, too many turn to change only when they are forced to do so.

If your best friend – or worst enemy – has knowledge they are willing to share in any form or fashion, toss aside your fears and foibles. Go grab it, learn it and apply it.

Learning to listen with an open mind, apply, adapt and grow, that's what will fuel the manufactured housing breakthrough. These are also cornerstones to what Industry News Tips and Views Pros Can Use – a tag line here at MHProNews – is all about.

The good news is that's why you and thousands logon daily at MHProNews.com. – some 125,000 to 150,000 monthly – an astonishing number for an industry of our relatively small size!  Readers like you take in about 1.2 to 1.3 million page views monthly, again an amazingly high number for a serious trade publication focused on factory built housing.

You are learning, growing, terrific!

But let's be clear, even though we offer the largest, most popular and number #1 source in our industry, we are only scratching the surface! There are thousands more – perhaps some on your team or who you know – that are not yet plugged into routinely learning. The Air Force thinks learning is a life-time need. Professional sporting teams are practicing and training throughout their season, and also during their 'off season.'

How much learning is going on in your career? At your company or association? It is a sometimes thing, or an all the time thing? If your operations are not performing at the level you want it to, is it because attitudes and behaviors – a lack of open minded learning – are limiting performance?

There are essentially only two answers to this, yes – which is the truth – or no, which is self-deception or delusion.

The Solutions Are so Easy

If you share widely what you see here with your team and colleagues, that knowledge will fuel more growth. We are either growing or going backwards. There is no neutral.

The new November issue of MHProNews.com will go live by the end of next week, which means you still have time to dive deeply into the current Featured Articles. I'd bet good money that anyone who opens their mind, has the right attitude, is willing to change, apply and grow will find plenty of fuel to make advancement happen!

Go ahead. Grab new knowledge. Try it. Share it. You'll like it. ##

(Sam Zell photo credit, (c) 2013 MHProNews. Other Image credits, WikiCommons, posters created by L.A. "Tony" Kovach, (c) 2013 by LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC.)

PS: Check our many Exclusive and Red Hot Featured Articles for October and see the other new stories at MHLivingNews.com too.

L. A. 'Tony' Kovach
ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com | MHProNews.com |
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