The Change Dude’s Blog

Knowledge, skill or luck?

Living in Surf City USA give me the opportunity to spend a lot of time in the surf.  Funny thing about surfing, know how doesn’t mean you can ride a wave.  It’s not often that a nubie doesn’t do weeks of face plants working to acquire the skill required to put the knowledge of surfing to work.  Same principle applies to dealing with change in today’s challenging marketplace.

Many members of today’s corporate leadership teams have never experienced riding the “big surf” being presented by present challenges.  The old heads that have lived through the pains of ’87, ’93 and the dot com bust are either retired or acting as consultants these days.  Crucially important to preventing a major wipe out is controlled responses until some level of control can be achieved.

Translated from this somewhat lame metaphor is the need to measure response while preparing for the recovery.  Managing change is always a balancing act between hardnosed drastic action and tempered empowerment.  The result of being a hard guy and overcorrecting is loss of trust and commitment to future renewal actions.  Using the power of the wave to propel forward motion is a far more effective approach than making severe changes that actually burn off energy you’ll need later.  Look for the small changes in your organization today to augment the much larger changes made early this year.  Three things to consider to retain the organizational energy you’ll need to renew in the coming months:

1. Commitment is king.  Holding and building commitment of your organization to grow and succeed will pay cash dividends in the near furture.

2. Lost energy can never be regained.  Draining energy from the organization is a losing proposition, for every action that negatively impacts organiational energy ensure that an equally powerful positive action is taken.

3. Celebrate every success.  No matter how small the win celebrate the event openly and with great fanfare.  Celebrations build energy and provide clarity that tomorrow will be another day to celebrate.

Building change skills takes more than knowing how to manage change.  Start working out…

May 12, 2009 - Posted by thechangedude | Thinking About Change, Thinking About Customers