Coast River Business Journal
BUSINESS COMMENT
June 2020 • 13
Don’t hesitate to let go
and charge forward
manage your
business.
manage your
By Jessica Newhall
Clatsop Community College
Small Business Development Center
One of the bright spots for me of late has been
the re-discovery of a love for playing cards —
leading to some friendly but highly competitive
games of the classic, Gin Rummy. What I enjoy
about this game is that it is not simply based on
chance — rather it requires one to be comfortable
with being forced to constantly adapt, often
abandoning a plan that once held great promise in
your quest to build the perfect hand.
What struck me during a recent game were
the parallels between the mindset and strategy
required to arrive at a winning hand of Gin Rummy
and how successful business owners respond to
“forced adaptation.” How, in times of diminished
resources or extreme external pressures, success
can be dependent on a person’s capacity to accept
that change is required, let go of what was once
thought to be a winning play and embrace a new
plan of action.
In Clatsop Community College’s Small Business
Management Program course, we often start our
bi-weekly 90-minute classroom sessions with a
grounding exercise. These are designed to give
class participants tools that aid in creating space
for learning and being present in the classroom.
This has also become more common in larger
businesses, where meditation and mindfulness are
recognized as ways to reduce employee anxiety,
improve the productivity of individuals, and
enhance the effectiveness of teams.
In a recent (now online) session I asked class
participants to close their eyes, take some deep
breaths and, when they were ready, think on the
following question:
• What are you holding tightly onto that you are
afraid to let go of, even though you know it is not
working for you or your business?
I then asked them to take a deep breath, followed
by a long exhale. As they exhaled, I suggested they
give themselves permission to let that hold loosen
and then, as they opened their eyes, acknowledge
that they could be open to new possibilities.
The world of commerce is complex and ever-
changing, and leaders are continuously faced with
overcoming dynamic market conditions, changing
customer tastes and fluctuations in resource
availability. Yet, these challenges do not often fall
on business leaders all at once or as severely as
this “black swan” event has done.
Yet, here we are. The reality is this situation
is upon us and we cannot turn back the clock.
Businesses that survive this, or even thrive in
the future as a result, will be those that are led
by individuals who are able to quickly identify
opportunities and let go of now-obsolete or
unavailable business models.
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Letting go can mean going through the
uncomfortable process of acknowledging lost
investments in time, resources and even people. It
means looking critically at the business model, the
market, the evolving customer, available resources
and determining, “this is the business that is going
to be successful tomorrow.” Letting go can also be
a very healing process for leaders who might be
carrying guilt, or shame or unproductive emotional
weight that is hindering forward progress.
The world of commerce
is complex and ever-
changing, and leaders
are continuously faced
with overcoming dynamic
market conditions.
Remember Kodak, Blackberry, MySpace,
Blockbuster, Xerox? These were all companies
whose leaders held tightly onto their business
models, failed to adapt when necessary and lost
as a result.
So, close your eyes, take a deep breath,
acknowledge what you are holding onto that no
longer serves you (or your Gin Rummy hand!),
give yourself permission to let it go and charge
forward!
Jessica Newhall is the lead advisor and Small
Business Management program manager for
the Clatsop Community College Small Business
Development Center. She can be reached at
jnewhall@clatsop.cc.edu.
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