As we come out of yet another wave of the pandemic, the movie “Groundhog Day” comes to mind.  For those unfamiliar with the movie, Bill Murray’s character gets stuck in a time loop and has to live the same day over and over.  For some, the pandemic is no longer a concern and they are living their lives like it no longer exists.  For others, this recent wave has them feeling like Bill Murray’s character in the movie “Groundhog Day”, depressed, upset, and frustrated at reliving the same experience over and over.

As change agents and leaders, it can feel like we’re stuck in a time loop at times…sometimes it’s at work, sometimes it’s in our personal life, and sometimes it’s in both.  So the question is, how much do you currently feel like you’re in the movie “Groundhog Day” (i.e. stuck in a time loop)?  If you are currently in a time loop, how much do you want to break the cycle?

What can being stuck in a time loop at work look like?

It could be the same:

• Issue returning several months after it was thought to have been solved

• Relationship dynamic taking place between you and a coworker day after day

• Deflecting blame behavior exhibited by a team over and over

• Toxic work environment day after day

• System outage happening over and over

What can being stuck in a time loop in your personal life look like?

It could be the same:

• Fight with your spouse, teenager, parent, etc. repeating over time

• Dance taking place between you and another person (e.g. your teenager manipulating you when there is something they want, your father criticizing you every chance he gets, your spouse taking it out on you whenever they get stressed, etc.)

• Behavior pattern repeating itself (e.g. you try to do it all and then get burned out, you say you’re going to exercise and then don’t follow through, you end up on social media instead of getting done what it is you had wanted to get done, etc.)

• Issues reoccurring in your current relationship that happened in your prior relationships

• Trend happening over and over (e.g. getting sick whenever you finally take a vacation, challenge after challenge keeps coming your way, etc.)

If you’ve been stuck in a time loop and have been trying to break it, and it’s not been working, then either:

• You’ve been focused on solving symptoms instead of the root cause

• Or there’s more than one root cause contributing to the problem

Either way, identifying the root cause(s) is key.  So what is the root cause(s) of your particular time loop?  

Call to Action

• Having trouble identifying the root cause(s)? Reach out to Rosanne for help so you can break the time loop, and finally resolve the issue for good.

• Using the comments feature, what's a time loop you’ve experienced where it turned out you had been focused on solving symptoms instead of root cause?

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About the Author: Rosanne Essiambre helps change agents and departments in one-on-one and group settings to be seen, be heard, and be effective in bringing about change in the organization and/or in their personal lives. She provides consulting and facilitation to organizations to improve communications and collaboration, smooth out the change / transformation journey, get to the root cause of an issue so it can be solved for good, improve processes, and implement successful lessons learned. And she conducts workshops, trains, and speaks on Energy Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, Being a Change Agent and more. If you or your organization could use support with your change effort or some inspiration, contact Rosanne for a complimentary consultation. Rosanne is a Change Agent Coach, Facilitator, Six Sigma Black Belt, Change Management / Continuous Improvement Consultant, Speaker, and Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner with more than 20 years experience working on a variety of transformations across a diverse set of industries both domestically and internationally, while continuously improving herself.