Change doesn't come easy to most people, we fight it for any number of reasons. Not the least of which is loss, we feel we are losing something and perhaps we are actually losing something. Perhaps it is a connection to the feeling or people that came before us, be they family or friends or a way of life. It is like the process of managing grief: 1. Denial, 2. Anger, 3. Bargaining, 4. Depression, and 5. Acceptance.
I was reading a recent article in Consulting Magazine (Dec 2009) the starting point was the following statement:
two-thirds of senior executives say the current global economic crisis was a catalyst for driving change across organizations ...
The questions that have been in my mind since reading the article are: "Why does it take a crisis to drive change?"
At times a business must create a crisis to drive change in an organization. By that I don't mean manufacturer a crisis, but rather frame a problem the busines is having into a crisis that has bad or dire consequences if things don't improve. Sometimes our people don't see a reason to change even if you know that there is. When I was a Plant Manager and I was privy to the knowledge that our business was being sold and one of our sister plants was to close, some in their management chose to single someone else another plant should be closed. I created a different crisis, I chose to point out how much our process and quality mistakes were costing our business. I pointed out that for the company to make future investments in us we'd need to improve and quickly for the next year's budget was fast approaching.
"Why focus on short-term objectives instead of long-term overhaul?"
If you work long enough and in enough companies and businesses you see quite a bit of what can go wrong when focused too much on the short-term versus the long-term strategy. Only focusing on the short-term objectives is like fighting the crisis of the day, and moving from one fire to another. This type of focus means you may miss the fact that a competitor has being pouring fuel into your back door, while walking away your customers out the front. It may mean that you miss that a longtime supplier is sorting parts to get you parts for your new product or new design. Try as they might some bad parts are slipping in. A long-term view might have had you engage that supplier years before to get them ready for the change in your products and designs.
How do you move from short-term objectives to long-term changes? What are you doing to grow your business?
What do you think, do you need to change? Should you create a crisis?
