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Dear leader… I hear that change is the only constant. As a matter of fact, that is an undeniable truth, but does that also make it necessary and inevitable?
A thought experiment for those currently leading a large organization. What percentage of total management capacity is spent annually on initiating, planning, organizing, implementing, and communicating changes? Be honest!
Wherever I go, it is at least 20 to 30 percent. How much capacity from other staff departments is involved? And what percentage of the time of all other employees is spent annually on understanding, processing and internalizing change? All in all, we pay a high price for change. Now imagine that we put all that capacity and energy into performing well for customers and clients. And imagine that we keep that up year after year, continuously focussing all attention on customers and performance – nothing else. Where would the company be after, let’s say, 10 years?
This is, of course, just a thought experiment and has little to do with reality. But the thought came to me, when I, after years of consultancy, worked within a large organization for a few years. I noticed that most people in senior management described themselves as people who ‘do more than just retain the status quo’. They wanted to build, innovate and tackle. I admit, that is great for me as a communication and change professional. But at some point, I noticed a pattern. Every big change was initiated by these top managers with great enthusiasm. But after a while their role as initiators was played out, and although nothing concrete had changed yet, they started to get bored. That is not surprising if change is such a big part of your life. So, what do you do then? Exactly, you simply come up with the next big change.
In his classic “Good to Great”, Jim Collins describes how some companies are successful precisely because of an outstanding form of ‘retaining the status quo’. Companies that know what they are really good at, where their passion lies, and how they manage to be sustainably profitable, only need to keep turning the flywheel of their business year after year to ever greater speed. No course changes, no major reorganizations, and no drastic change programs, because that means you have to get the flywheel going again each time. No, just hard work with iron discipline. Collins’ MIT study shows that this is ultimately the secret behind companies that consistently perform better than their competitors and beat the market year after year.
But yes, that is a bit boring.
Dear leader…
Under this title, we are reissuing a series of 10 classic blogs on leadership communication and change. Michiel van Delden wrote them over the last few years, translating key lessons from these two disciplines to the world of managers.