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Be Interactive, Not Reactive or
Proactive
Run, run, run. React to this, react to that. How can you be
effective when you are continuously being pulled into situations?
You want a way out and you think the solution is to become
proactive. But how? And what does this mean? Are you now simply
pushing the same people and situations that used to be pulling
you? And how can you know if you are headed in the right
direction?
Being reactive implies your action begins after the fact; acting
in response to a stimulus or situation, as if simply poised
waiting for something to happen. I don’t think this is ever
the case. I usually feel reactive when I am hit with something I
did not anticipate.
The other tactic is to be proactive, which implies that your
response is preceding the action. Creating a solution before
being requested to have one. Anticipating what is needed and
having it ready. This seems like a great position to be in;
however you need to know what to be ready for. You cannot
anticipate everything. The important question is how to be
selective?
What does it mean to be Reactive or Proactive?
A little analysis will show something about these two tactics or
styles of business effort.
Benefits: When you are reactive you know there is a situation
requiring action. Unfortunately the correct action is usually
needed prior to you hearing about it, so you now take corrective
action – clean up the mess or stop the leaks. A proactive
tactic may head off trouble or anticipate a request. Or, you may
be off the mark. You may be doing something unwanted. You will
only find this out after you are done – the hero if you
focused on the correct situation, reacting yet again if you did
not.
Learning: Not much is learned in either case. A reactive style
doesn't pay much attention to expanding knowledge, new skills or
finding a better way. There is not much time to learn when you
get one situation handled and another pops up. The proactive
style is always looking forward; it rarely reflects or evaluates
results.
Costs: A lot of effort goes into both tactics. They each take
enormous amounts of energy to keep going. Neither is mindful of
resources. The reactive style throws everything available at the
situation and the proactive style often uses resources to plan
ahead in areas that are not needed or important.
Characterizations: A Reactive style is coiled, anticipating, and
defensive. The Proactive style is pushing out, busy, and alert.
Both are vigilant stances.
Be Effective, be Interactive
What would be an alternative to these two styles? Being
Interactive. This means you get involved and stay involved with
people without there being a problem or situation. You know what
is happening around you. What are your bosses’ goals? What
concerns do your peers and customers have? If you have people
reporting to you, what are they thinking about? And don’t be
shy about your own goals and needs. Make sure other people know
what you are thinking and planning. The more you know about your
organization and the more people know about your goals, the more
successful the organization and you will be.
An analysis of interactive tactics shows a different picture.
Benefits: You are very involved with your environment.
Learning: High levels of insight and knowledge building.
Costs: Maximization of resources; not waiting, not over planning
or jumping the gun.
Characterization: Involved, asking questions, doing research,
finding out how things work, what is needed, what isn’t.
Will being interactive mean that you will never be blindsided and
start to feel reactive? No. However, when the unexpected happens
you will have a better sense of how urgent the matter is because
you will know the priorities of your business. You will know who
to work with so it can be resolved with a minimum of fuss and
effort. Does it also mean you never have to be proactive? Of
course not, in fact a proactive style will be a natural outcome
of being interactive. You will know what is needed and not have
to second guess those around you – you will know that you
are headed in the right direction and have support and
understanding from colleagues and clients.
Will everyone respond positively to this change? No. However most
will respond well as they see you are interested in them and
their concerns and goals. And others will come around as you
practice and model this new tactic and they begin to see the
benefits.
How to change tactics
How do you make this shift? Try these suggestions and then share
them with everyone.
1) Take time to debrief with all involved; especially from
reactive situations. Work with these questions: What could have
been done differently? Do we need a contingency plan in place for
this (process, strategy, etc.)?
2) Create learning situations with clients and colleagues. Teach
what you do and know. Learn what others do and what they need.
Update this learning often.
3) Be creative - use the learning to the benefit of all parties.
Share ideas, link ideas. Look for best practices, benchmarking,
clear roles and responsibilities.
4) Look for barriers to understanding and cooperation. Then work
with others to eliminate these as they arise.
5) When going into a new situation, ask of everyone: What do you
want to happen? How will we measure our success? Look for
understanding, past successful actions – start out right.
6) When completing a task, ask everyone: How could this be
better?
Use these suggestions to reduce frustration and anxiety and
introduce stability and creativity.
They say it is lonely at the top; this is nothing compared to
being stuck in a reactive or clueless proactive position –
not being effective when you want to do well. Being interactive
gives you a tactic to work well with people. And it might be the
tactic that gets you to the top, so you can find out if it is
really all that lonely.
© Fritz M. Brunner, Ph.D. 2005
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