Change

One of the most wonderful things about life is change – the growth of a child; the arrival of spring; the improvements in relationships; the maturing after learning from experience; the almost constant sales in the stores now to spur on buying and bring smiles when you get a good one; the snow in the morning and the sunshine in the afternoon – life is truly filled with change. 

Business is no different than life.  One of the most wonderful things about business is change – the growth of a business leader; the arrival of a finished product; the transition of an acquaintance to a marquee relationship for the company; the change in pricing of products and services based on changing market demands; the loss of a major opportunity one day and the win of an even more major contract the next – business is also filled with change.

Interestingly enough, though all of life and all of business is filled with change, many people seem to resist change, worry enormously about change, or ponder change hoping that it becomes more routine rather than a major decision.  In effect, change is routine, and in spite of the resistance, in spite of the worrying and in spite of the pondering, the change is occurring regardless.  The real question becomes, is the change that is occurring (whether we want it to or not) the kind of change that we (as business leaders) feel will benefit the business or will focus the business in a direction that we feel is appropriate, meaningful, and accelerating against goals?

I’m convinced that it takes as much if not more effort to restrict change (which is actually a form of change in itself because you’re actually trying to pull back rather than lean forward) than it does to embrace and encourage change.  As Denise and I were walking yesterday, it was very noticeable how hard it was to walk into the wind and very uplifting to then turn around and walk with the wind.  As we leaned into the wind going out, the resistance was significant and the time to reach destination was quite a bit longer.  When we then turned with the wind on the second half of our journey, the pace picked up, the smiles increased, and the journey seemed to pass much faster. 

As I think about change, one of my favorite songs is by The Scorpions, called “Wind of Change”.  I remember so clearly this song being played time and time again when the Berlin Wall came down.  Early in the song, they sing, “the future’s in the air, I can feel it everywhere, blowing with the wind of change.”  Though a pretty extreme comparison, that same wind of change is blowing in every business.  Our challenge though is that in business we create competing winds of change.  There is a natural wind that blows up from the operations that drives the business towards an easier and more meaningful path for those that are held accountable for revenue and income.  There is another wind that is driven from the staff and the overseers that carries with it the risk tolerance of an organization and the restrictor plate on the overall speed of growth.  And there is another more subtle and yet more defining wind that comes from the whispers of an organization carrying undefined and yet undeniable policies or ways of doing business that are acceptable though maybe not recordable.  And finally, there is a wind defined by the expectations and yet the politics of an organization, where the force of the wind may be driven by the promises made and at times accelerate the winds from the operations while at other times totally negating that wind.

The very best businesses can feel each of those winds and can even identify their origins.  If at any time those winds become mutually aligned, the gales of success for the business can be enormous.  Unfortunately, those times are rare, though incredibly rewarding.  More realistically, those winds are constantly competing with each other, and our jobs as business leaders is to have more of the winds pushing in a progressive and accelerating flow thus leading to a much easier and more enjoyable journey.

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