Human bodies are microcosmic shadows of the middle market business.
Sometimes the veil of liminal spaces—the divide between what is and what might be—lifts in the most unexpected places—like in a doctor’s office. Business advising alone is only part of the prescription for sustainable business growth.
After taking an embarrassing tumble onto the floor of Union Station in downtown Denver a couple weeks ago, I thought only my pride was wounded. Later that day I struggled to sit comfortably because my tailbone bothered me so much.
It only took a few days of painful chair-shifting and minimal improvement for me to visit my physician who referred me to another doctor–a chiropractor. Many of us who have never visited a chiropractor have varying stereotypes of what a chiropractor is like and what happens behind that door.
Personally, I imagined a Yoda-like figure—small, wizend and wise—who could, with a slight touch of his finger, access the Force to produce miraculous instantaneous results. Alignments created ex nihilo, out of nothing.
The Appointment
On the day of my appointment, I sat in the waiting room wondering what to expect. (Akin to the apprehension of first-time attendees to a business advisory session). Then, a figure as large as the door frame summoned me to his work parlour. As I follow this gentleman to the room, multiple lightning flashes of thought simultaneously fire:
“He’s bigger than I imagined!”
“He reminds of those ex-linemen orthopedic surgeons who work on pro football players.”
“I hope he doesn’t hurt me!”
“What do I have to lose? I’m in debilitating pain!”
After the usual pleasantries, he set to diagnosing my problem swiftly.
“Please stand next to the table and lift your left leg; you can brace yourself on the table if you need to.”
I obediently did so and found myself wobbling wildly on my right foot.
“That’s fine. Now lift your right leg and do the same thing.”
I lifted my right leg with a less violent wobble around the axis of my left leg.
“As I thought, your pelvis is misaligned.” He proceeded to describe in layman’s language the precise issues going. Then he directed me to lie face down on the adjustment table and put wedges of differing sizes under the crest of my pelvic bone.
“When I press on your pelvis, you’ll hear the table drop* as I make the adjustment.” What’s dropping I wondered?
Before I knew it, he had pressed down with such sudden force that the section of the table under my hips did in fact snap downward with a thunderous metallic snap. But I was still in one piece!
“Now,” he instructed me, lean on your side and drape yourself over the left side of the table. You’ll feel as if you’re falling off but don’t worry, I haven’t dropped anyone in 30 years and I’m not about to start today,” he said with a friendly, gap-toothed grin.
He cradled me sidewise like a baby in his arms, pressed downward on my right hip and I felt yet another crack near my tailbone. After repeating that same procedure on my right side, he ordered me to stand up.
“Now let’s see how you do standing on one leg and then the other.”
Miraculously, each leg was planted like a flagpole and no longer tilt-a-whirling at Elitch’s Garden.
Then he walked me through a series of exercises I was to do at home when I woke up, just before I went to bed and whenever I sit for more than 15 minutes. Then he sent me on my way to do the follow-up work.
During the first week, my exercise patterns were about as unsteady as my initial diagnosis. And then the liminal veil parted: I saw how similar my chiropractic visits and follow-up exercises are to the work business owners need to do after meeting with our firm—and why solid Developmental Coaching (TM) —walking alongside owners through the stages of their business growth—is so essential.
Numerous business advisors operate from a Yoda model—they tap into the Force and can show you how to tap into the Force, but leave you with all the heavy lifting on your own. Many of us are ingrained with the image of a stereotypical business consultant who parachutes in, miraculously adjusts the business, looks like a hero, then leaves. Some of us recall a stereotype of a business coach who is empathetic but has no strong business background.
My perception of chiropractors was inaccurate; chiropractic care and exercise are clearly affecting my health transformation. In essence, business consulting is necessary, but insufficient alone, to adjust your business. What’s needed is integrated Developmental Coaching (TM) support to transform your business. Just as the success of my chiropractic adjustments depends on my active daily exercise, so too does business transformation require incisive and insightful intervention by a business consultant together with sustained energy and commitment of the business owner and his management team.
Readers, if any of you have gone through physical therapy or chiropractic care for back pain, you’ll know that without participation in a sustained program over time, you will revert back to the painful, hunched version of yourself. Likewise, business transformation is best achieved when the business advisor walks alongside the owner and his management team to secure the next level of sustainable growth in the business.
Toolkit:
What area of your business could use some alignment?
- Key employees?
- Growing revenues?
- Improving cash flow?
- Accessing capital?
- Planning for the future?
- Increasing operational efficiencies?
We offer a complemintary “diagnosis” to get your business aligned! Click here to set up a call to learn what you’ll receive from our diagnosis: Schedule a meeting with Calendly
*Note: Not all chiropractors elect to use a “drop table” as described, but adopt equally effective, low-impact adjustment techniques.
