Why Change? Check your attitude.
Every time I talk with managers about change, I get the sense of a serious disconnect about the reason for any change. There’s still a prevailing attitude in most organizations that there’s no need for any changes. Yet many managers complain bitterly about how things aren’t going well and how their people aren’t producing results.
In his new book, “Built to Change,” Ed Lawler, business professor at the University of Southern California shows how organizations can be built to change so they can last and succeed in today’s economy. In the video link below, Karl Moore of McGill University, talks with Professor Lawler about the need for business to change whenever there’s a significant change in the marketplace.
Talking Management, Karl Moore with Ed Lawler, Globe & Mail, 27 January 2009
Note: I have no connection to the company at the start of this video.
One of the chief responsibilities of management is to recognize the need for change. The most obvious indicator of the need for change is uneven or poor economic performance. The only investment made by not acting on these signs is in managerial ego. Sadly, the message most managers send is “don’t rock the boat.” A recession is like a bad storm at sea. With every industry on the planet experiencing significant change, our job as managers is to make sure both our crew and our craft are ready for it.
People in organizations in every sector expect its leadership to begin the change process with managers acknowledging that things are different. An important first step is to define the new reality faced by our business by doing a thorough analysis of what is different. And along with that, an honest assessment of the things the organization does better than anyone else can do. From that, managers must ask of the organization, “What must we do to adapt?” The true work of management, (and, I would argue, what we’re really paid to do) is to get our organizations to respond positively and creatively to external changes – in the environment in which we all compete for the Customer’s business – the marketplace.
As challenging as the economy may be right now, the onset of the recession is a rare opportunity for managers to do two things: re-design key areas of our business to deliver better economic performance; and, equally important, on a systematic and continuous basis make the whole organization more accepting, less fearful of change.