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SCOTT DOW -

"Complacency is the enemy of success, and it's a very worthy adversary! 

• It sneaks up on you, because it's easy to hide.
• It spreads quickly, because it's contagious.
• And when you bring it up, people get defensive.

So you've got to look for complacent behavior, nip it in the bud and expect some pushback when you do.

But remember, complacency doesn't mean disengagement. In fact, complacency hides behind hard work and ambition.

Complacent employees enjoy success. They like the status quo and they want things to stay the same. So successful people keep doing what they've been doing, which includes hard work. And success wets their appetite for more success, so they're still ambitious. And it's hard to warn ambitious, hardworking people about complacency. But here are some signs of complacency you can look for...

The signs that are otherwise easy to miss.

• People become resistant to change and risk averse because the status quo is worked and if it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality. That's complacency.
• There's groupthink because nobody wants to rock the boat. So they rationalize decisions to keep the peace. That's complacency.
• It's easy to procrastinate and be indecisive because you've got the luxury of time. So paralysis by analysis sets in. That's complacency.
• There's more bureaucracy too, because we want to control and replicate success. That's complacency too.
• Then accountability gets fuzzy. There's an old saying "Success has many parents, but failure is an orphan.", and that's why shared success tends to water down accountability. And that's complacency.

So how do you fight complacency?

• You've got to fight overconfidence because it's the oxygen that fuels complacency. So when times are good, you want to promote humility, gratitude, curiosity, open mindedness and agility.
• You've got to explain what complacency looks like, warn against it, and whenever you see it, spray it with disinfectant.
• Attack groupthink. Promote diversity. Embrace your contrarians, encourage debate and be the devil's advocate.
• Don't allow people to get comfortable. Focus on continuous improvement and use process goals to track daily and weekly progress.
• Caution against the status quo. Track your progress and celebrate change.
• Encourage trial and error. Celebrate the struggle. Promote resilience and grit and leverage your setbacks as learning opportunities.
• Limit the bureaucracy, push empowerment down the organization. Give people the right tools and hold them accountable.

Remember, people have a natural affinity for the status quo, especially when times are good.

But Andy Grove, the former CEO of intel, said, "Success breeds complacency, complacency breeds failure. And only the paranoid survive."

So don't fear success. Fear complacency."

 Outro

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