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HERE
COMES THE CHANGE TRAIN -- AGAIN!
Watch out!
It’s coming again!
“What is?,” you ask?
It’s the Change Train and it’s picking up speed like
never before. There
was a time in life when you could get on and off the train at
will – ride for awhile, get comfortable, make a few changes,
and then jump off and stay put.
When it suited your needs, you could get back on.
Well, my friends, those days are over.
Today, change is moving faster than a speeding bullet.
The difference between the Change Train and a real train
is the destination. A
real train moves from Point A to Point B.
It has a scheduled departure time and arrival time.
In today’s fast- paced world, the Change Train only
departs; it never really arrives.
It may slow down and sometimes change directions, but it
never stops. Nolan
Ryan, the retired baseball great, summed it up like this:
“There’s no off season anymore.” I
tell Thomas Group clients to look around and assess the world
they work in. It
makes no difference whether the firm is a small ISO, large OEM,
regional healthcare facility, or a global financial concern; if
the world around them is changing faster than their
organization, there’s big trouble ahead.
With
such a radical departure from our past experience, what are we
supposed to do? Normally,
our first response is to try to slow down and control the
changing speed. We become overly cautious and suspicious.
After all, we are “creatures of habit.”
Our habits or behaviors of the past must be modified so
that accelerating change is looked upon as being normal, rather
than abnormal and something to be feared.
Imagine, if you will, trying to restrict the physical and
mental development of a five-year-old child.
It would be paramount to child abuse and a criminal
offense. Those of
us who are blessed with children bristle at the thought of
limiting their growth and development.
We encourage, prod, push, and pull in an effort to help
them reach their full potential. Can you ever envision saying to a child, “I know you’re
in the sixth grade but I want you to read at the third grade
level.” Never
would we say such a thing.
More likely we would be accused of pushing our children
too hard to achieve our high expectations.
We
try to instill in our children this desire to achieve and grow.
We want them to change, develop and reach full potential.
As children, we are protected and nurtured in a safe
environment that is filled with change.
Somewhere between adolescence and adulthood, we begin to
resist change. Is
it because of the artificial societal milestones we reach?
Do we have a sense of arrival when we start a business,
graduate from college, get married, or receive that big
promotion?
We
have to change our behavior so we can change our culture so we
can embrace change and get on board the Change Train.
No matter your position, whether leader or follower, if
you don’t speed up the pace of change in your life, you hurt
everyone around you. Change is not bad -- it’s good.
It’s what opens up human potential and allows us to
take advantage of the self-perpetuating change in technology.
We
have to embrace and encourage the speed of change so that this
constant movement becomes the key effect of our new
“habitat;” and, as “creatures of habit,” we become
comfortable with the level and speed of change we deal with.
This helps us to shift our organizational cultures so we
can deal with the challenges and opportunities created by
massive amounts of change.
In his book, Culture Shift, Price Pritchett says
it takes “guts” to deal with change.
Employees need to give themselves permission to pioneer
in the process of change. If
they don’t, the organization loses.
In the past, when “things” got tough, people would
revert to the old way of doing “things;” it always seemed
safe. To continue
to practice business in the future as we have in the past is
more likely to destroy any chance of future success than to
attain our desired success.
This
is not the first article nor will it be the last I write about
change. Each day we
get up and gear up to meet whatever challenges may lie ahead.
With so much change about, we need to be disciplined and
fearless in our approaches.
Panic in the heat of battle is a fatal mistake.
We are already on the Change Train.
Trying to jump off could be deadly.
Sit back and enjoy the ride.
I have a feeling that, when it comes to the changes,
“we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
- Paul
Thomas
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