There are times in my life when I've come to a junction where my life will change dramatically, either in part to a choice I am making or events that are occurring around me. At these times (sometimes they are hard to spot, others not) I like to pause and really reflect on just what is occurring.
All choices and changes are not the same. I make decisions all the time but most of the time they don't amount to much as my life will keep chugging along as it's has been. But getting married, divorced, having kids, changing professions, etc. These will change your life.
I liken these moments as a "can't go back" commitment. Actually there is a good poster by Mary Engelbreit that speaks to this.
Companies are not that much different. For the most part, decisions are made day in and day out and the path, culture and outcomes do not diverge much. But there are times when I company should or needs to change.
If you have been with a single company any length of time, then you may have experiences a time when the company CEO announces a "new" corporate initiative or plan to update the culture or some "big" change. These are mostly driven by aging sales, technology, product direction, client feedback or something where executives need to send a message of change. Whether they want it to occur is a different matter.
I liken these moments of change to that of a basic traffic intersection. You have multiple options and once you have made your choice, there is no turning back. You're committed.
There is always the case where a company "says" it wants to, needs to and will be changing, but in really, never does. I've seen it multiple times with different companies. To me it feels more like driving in a round about, you keep moving and changing directions but not fully committing to making a change and thus not really getting anywhere.
There has been some good write ups on companies that have re-invented themselves over time. Adobe is one that comes to mind. When they needed to change, they changed staff, teams, locations, directions, focus, etc. You know, really really changed.
Real change with using the same staff, teams, process, executives, etc. may prove a tough row to hoe and you may be stuck in a round about instead. The inert forces that predicated the need to change would not be best options for implementation going forward.
Making decisions every day are easy but suggesting that managers, staff, executives maybe even locations be re-assigned to facilitate a change. These are the real decisions that need to be made and it's rare that a company (let along people inside) will make them.
It's easier to to just keep driving around instead.
I liken these moments as a "can't go back" commitment. Actually there is a good poster by Mary Engelbreit that speaks to this.
Companies are not that much different. For the most part, decisions are made day in and day out and the path, culture and outcomes do not diverge much. But there are times when I company should or needs to change.
If you have been with a single company any length of time, then you may have experiences a time when the company CEO announces a "new" corporate initiative or plan to update the culture or some "big" change. These are mostly driven by aging sales, technology, product direction, client feedback or something where executives need to send a message of change. Whether they want it to occur is a different matter.
I liken these moments of change to that of a basic traffic intersection. You have multiple options and once you have made your choice, there is no turning back. You're committed.
There is always the case where a company "says" it wants to, needs to and will be changing, but in really, never does. I've seen it multiple times with different companies. To me it feels more like driving in a round about, you keep moving and changing directions but not fully committing to making a change and thus not really getting anywhere.
There has been some good write ups on companies that have re-invented themselves over time. Adobe is one that comes to mind. When they needed to change, they changed staff, teams, locations, directions, focus, etc. You know, really really changed.
Real change with using the same staff, teams, process, executives, etc. may prove a tough row to hoe and you may be stuck in a round about instead. The inert forces that predicated the need to change would not be best options for implementation going forward.
Making decisions every day are easy but suggesting that managers, staff, executives maybe even locations be re-assigned to facilitate a change. These are the real decisions that need to be made and it's rare that a company (let along people inside) will make them.
It's easier to to just keep driving around instead.
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