Being able to think in the moment about whether your contributions to a conversation are valuable to the other party or potentially damaging is an incredibly valuable skill. It’s impossible to always be tuned in to how a message is being interpreted, but being more aware of what you’re saying and how you’re saying it can lead to more productive conversations and reduce the likelihood of stepping in a proverbial relationship mud puddle.

What makes business different is that a business is a going concern. What this means is that a business should–theoretically–last forever. But just like a human or your automobile, entropy is out to get your business. Without significant maintenance and substantive change through time, your business will fall apart and return to the stardust from whence it came. Therefore, change is a necessary condition for the success and survival of any business. Operating a business without a plan for how to deal with change–or imagining that change is not important–is akin to having a death wish. Left unattended the opposing forces of change and entropy will rip the organization apart.