The hardest part of change is that even a better world is a different world than the one people are used to. Change happens, ideally, when a choice has been made proactively, but it happens more than we’d like because the choice not to change is taken off the table.
When organizations talk about transformation, they imply that there is a course and trajectory–things will be different, we are planning for this and we will get there over time. The word transformation in business lingo has gotten so amorphous, all-encompassing and ubiquitous that its value in shaping action has diminished.
I walked away from using the word too. Digital transformation is too big to have resonance, I didn’t want to be all buzz and no substance. But I’ve come back full-steam to transformation. While transformation is still as involved as you think it is, the stakes of standing still have increased. Organizations focusing on their historic status quo are falling behind the curve and losing audiences and relevancy at an increasing rate. Impact and revenue drops are just around the corner, which can kill a business.
Consider this…
The question facing you isn’t if you are going to change or not, it is are you going to transform or be run over by someone else’s transformation. Guide your change, rather than let it happen to you. What I see as the hardest part for any organization, both for leaders and as a whole, is knowing how to start–how to escape the gravitational force of the tyranny of the urgent. How do you imagine what you could be when you are spending all your time just trying to live up to who you already are?
Technology, organizational structures, staff models, output channels will all continue to evolve, change and adapt. The question for you is are you going to go where your current momentum is carrying you, or where you and your organization need to be in order to succeed?
