Choose your ruts carefully

It's mud season here in Vermont, our locally famous fifth season. Living in a town with only two paved roads, mud season makes an adventure out of every trip to the store. The joke goes "choose your ruts carefully; you're going to be in them for the next 29 miles." From a transportation standpoint, that's a bit of an exaggeration. From a life standpoint, it is an understatement. Our ruts, or mindsets and routines, are long-term, chronic, and more challenging to change the longer we've been in them. Organizations are just as susceptible to ruts as individuals. A few years ago, the concept of finding your true north came into vogue. If your ruts don't point directly towards your true north, they are not serving you well. Time-wasting, non-productive habits are ruts. Luckily, the town crew comes out regularly and regrades the road, spreading gravel and smoothing out the road surface, erasing the ruts and allowing us to change direction more easily. What techniques do you use to "resurface" the ruts in your life? Do you have a "town crew" of trusted advisors? If not I'd recommend you find one.