Change or Get Crushed

Short Article #43

There’s nary a day that some imperative about the need to change doesn’t come across my monitor.

For good reason, I must admit. Change is arguably no longer periodic but continuous.

Change can also be quite startling when your company is the one caught off-guard. There are a number of possible reasons why change staggers even the best-made plans, sending leaders scurrying for a brilliant response…

A new competitor slips in one night, launches a web site that offers virtually identical product for half the price.
A once nascent technology now threatens to lop off your company’s market share in a nanosecond of the time it took to gain it.
In a matter of weeks, you lose some or all of your largest customers’ business and sales drop dramatically.
You get a letter one day announcing that your bank refuses to extend the customary line of credit.

The kind of change we’re witnessing is precipitated by our turbulent economy and the rapid introduction of new technology, as well as expanding globalization. Not much control over that, is there?

Change, inordinate change, begs a nimble response by the most adaptive organizations.

However, this requires leaders who are no longer confounded by change, but rather, embrace revolutionary transformation as the new norm. Consequently, they develop cogent, coherent strategies in response.

I’ve collected a few quotes on ‘change’ over the last couple of months. I certainly like how they mentally nudge me to consider new perspectives and ideas. I’d be interested in what you think of these 10 Quotes on Change:

“Be the change you want to see.” Mahatma Ghandi
“Having common purpose is the best way to predict outcomes in an unpredictable situation.” Jessica Flannery, founder of Kiva.org
“It is not good to have zeal without knowledge.” Proverbs
“The world is becoming less and less an extrapolation of the past.” Gary Hamel, author

“Everything we do will be made irrelevant in the future.” Gary Hamel
“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Albert Einstein
“The future has already happened, but the problem is it’s not equally distributed.” Unknown
“If you know all the answers, change all your questions.” Unknown
“If you don’t like change you’re going to like irrelevance a lot less.” Tom Feltenstein
“We cannot fundamentally grow our adaptability until we fundamentally grow our willingness to carefully consider the unconventional.” Mark Holmes

Okay, I tossed my own in at the end. Maybe you have a quote on change, if you do send it along.

Move forward courageously in 2010, but remember, passion isn’t any good if it’s invested in the wrong direction. Give thought to your ways and submit your plans to good advisors.

Bottom-line: Get your management team discussing change. Take a few of these quotes and thrash them around a bit in your next meeting or brain-storming session. See what new thoughts find their way to fertile ground!

Mark Holmes helps companies increase sales, service and employee performance. He utilizes twenty-four years of experience advising, training, and coaching some of America’s most successful small and large companies. His ideas on employee retention, employee motivation, customer service and leadership have been widely featured in major national media like FOX, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, BNET and The Wall Street Journal.