Change is the norm in our lives. Economic, political, social, and/or personal factors drive it. One question I am repeatedly asked regarding organizational change is: Is all change good? I welcome your pondering about this question and to share your answers with me.
Now let me share my answer with you. Change is desirable whenever we are dissatisfied with the status quo or when our survival is at stake. In my view, change without improvement is pointless. To give change meaning, it has to improve performance (growth) and/or it has to ensure survival.
Now, change is not easy.
Organizations, just like human beings, prefer predictability and familiarity. Like human beings, organizations can fall into habits and patterns over time that can be hard to change. With change, things tend to become unpredictable and unusual. Scary, if you will. Change requires us, as Bill Bridges teaches us in his book on Transitions, to let go of the status quo (ending) before we can start a new beginning, and in between these two points we have to travel the uncomfortable zone called the "neutral" zone, neither here nor there, so to speak.
In Silicon Valley there is an expression that made quite an impact on me as young professional: To stay still is to fall behind. Meaning, your competitors might overtake you and leave you behind. So if an organization is stuck and unable to change and adapt, it risks the likelihood of losing its competitive edge. This principle applies to our career management process. If we stop growing technically and personally, we risk losing any marketable advantage we might have. Lifelong learning is not just a slogan but a strategy for career advancement.
Organizations also need to always live to fight another day. They need to have the opportunity to renew themselves, to become better. The landscape is full of carcasses where organizations were not able to do so and as a result had run out of time. Change indeed can provide organizations the ability to at least fight another day. It is sad to see the icons GM and Chrysler run out of time, possibly to be rescued by the Federal government.
In closing, my premise is that organizations who know how to manage change have a competitive advantage because they know how to do it well. A subject I will discuss in a future blog.
Let me hear from you.
Now let me share my answer with you. Change is desirable whenever we are dissatisfied with the status quo or when our survival is at stake. In my view, change without improvement is pointless. To give change meaning, it has to improve performance (growth) and/or it has to ensure survival.
Now, change is not easy.
Organizations, just like human beings, prefer predictability and familiarity. Like human beings, organizations can fall into habits and patterns over time that can be hard to change. With change, things tend to become unpredictable and unusual. Scary, if you will. Change requires us, as Bill Bridges teaches us in his book on Transitions, to let go of the status quo (ending) before we can start a new beginning, and in between these two points we have to travel the uncomfortable zone called the "neutral" zone, neither here nor there, so to speak.
In Silicon Valley there is an expression that made quite an impact on me as young professional: To stay still is to fall behind. Meaning, your competitors might overtake you and leave you behind. So if an organization is stuck and unable to change and adapt, it risks the likelihood of losing its competitive edge. This principle applies to our career management process. If we stop growing technically and personally, we risk losing any marketable advantage we might have. Lifelong learning is not just a slogan but a strategy for career advancement.
Organizations also need to always live to fight another day. They need to have the opportunity to renew themselves, to become better. The landscape is full of carcasses where organizations were not able to do so and as a result had run out of time. Change indeed can provide organizations the ability to at least fight another day. It is sad to see the icons GM and Chrysler run out of time, possibly to be rescued by the Federal government.
In closing, my premise is that organizations who know how to manage change have a competitive advantage because they know how to do it well. A subject I will discuss in a future blog.
Let me hear from you.
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