Making Change Happen

Change happens faster and on a greater scale than ever before. Increasing globalisation and IT are the primary forces enabling companies to create new products and move into new markets at bewildering speeds. Who would have thought ten years ago that today the biggest bookseller in the world would own no shops. And of course each change that happens, creates changes in other areas, that create changes in other areas .... It is like watching bacteria multiplying in a petri dish.

These bacteria attack the status quo. If you remain part of the status quo, you will suffer. The only protection is to change yourself. Change is not optional. Survival in the past does not guarantee your survival in the future. In fact, the very strengths that give many companies their current competitive advantage are likely in the future to be the very things that harm them.

Recognising the need for change is the start. Managers must also have the necessary skills to make change happen. In fact, if we step back for a moment, we can see that talking of 'change' as if it is some kind of entity actually clouds the issue.

What change is really about is: people. What we are changing is: perceptions, habits, attitudes, feelings, motivations, behaviours, conversations, goals, visions - of the people in our organisation.

On day one, a large lake contains only a single small lily pad. Each day the number of lily pads doubles, until on the 30th day the lake is totally choked with vegetation. On what day was the lake half full? The answer, of course, is the 29th day. It took 29 days for the first half of the lake to fill with lily pads, but only 24 additional hours for the lake to become overwhelmed.

Welcome to day 29.