Musings at Altitude

I mentioned earlier that so many of my friends in companies across this country are going through enormous change in their organizations.  Most fully embrace the change and are champions of change.  Even so, the impacts are great, and the ability to measure success as a result of change takes an enormously long time.

As I look forward to change in our organization, I continue to think back to one of my favorite songs by the Scorpions – “The winds of change”.  They were celebrating the Berlin Wall coming down and the approaching end of the Cold War.  “Did you ever think that we could be so close like brothers.”  What a great line, and what a great nirvanic goal for any change that occurs.

Unfortunately, business change is rarely met with such incredible optimism and such lofty goals.  Since most companies and most people are reactive and not proactive, change comes not from optimism but from pessimism, and change comes not to create closeness in those affected by change but more likely to create cost reductions by eliminating folks through change.  In the “Winds of Change”, that wind brought new hope, renewed relationships, and revived spirits.  In business change, that wind more often than not brings new worries, fractured relationships, and destroyed spirits.  But it doesn’t have to be that catastrophic…we just often times through our actions (or lack thereof), our poor communications, our limited awareness and our poor preparation end up allowing it to.  We end up living through a hurricane in the winds of change within our business.

Speaking of hurricanes, on August 17, 1969, my Dad took my family to the beach front in Biloxi, Mississippi, and checked us into the Buena Vista Hotel.  He was employed by a TV station that had their studio on the ground floor of the hotel, and with Hurricane boring down on the coast, he needed to be at the station and he needed us close to him.  I remember my Dad and other members of the station sand bagging till it became obvious that the rising tide wouldn’t stop, and then he joined us in the upper floors of the hotel to ride out the 200 mile per hour winds and the 25 foot storm surge.  I was only 8 years old then, but I remember being scared beyond belief as the leading edge of the storm hit and the windows of the hotel began to blow inward.   The water kept rising into the hotel, and the entire hotel swayed in the wind.  I remember the eye passing over and the incredible sense of calm, maybe even a sense of peace that then occurred…I thought it was over.  And then the back side of the hurricane launched its fury, bringing more destruction and more despair. 

After the hurricane passed, there were moments of disbelief as the damage was surveyed and a sense of complete helplessness set in.  But pretty shortly thereafter, folks begin focusing on recovery and they banded together to rebuild.  In that rebuilding process we ended up with a gulf coast that was much different and some would say much stronger than before.  Unfortunately, they are rebuilding again now after Hurricane Katrina devastated them once again with an even higher tidal surge that completely destroyed the beach front this time.  What Camille left, Katrina seemingly took away.

Business change can often times be like a hurricane.  As the business storm of change approaches, some people will do the necessary things to prepare, knowing that the change will be painful and knowing also that the magnitude of change may not be known till the change process begins.  Others will go to the beach front wanting to see the leading edge of that storm and in some cases even go out on the incredibly and unusually high waves that warn of the approaching storm.  In business, some folks will head to the business beach assuming all will be well and anxiously wanting to see what that storm of change will look like not ever thinking it will impact them.  And yet others will see and hear the news of the approaching storm and instead of preparing, they’ll continue with business as usual assuming that all will be fine and even if the storm hits it won’t affect them.

When the storm of change hits, reality will set in for all of those who are still in the path of that storm.  As the change process intensifies, those who have prepared begin using those preparations to their advantage.  Their preparation will allow them to weather the storm of change better than all others.  During the height of change though, all who are in those winds of change will be impacted and even some will be lost – some by their own chosing and others to meet the prescribed goals of the change program.  But those that didn’t prepare and blindly assume that all will be well will be caught up in a storm that will have great consequence to them personally and to much of their team.  There’s not much worse than being blind to the storm or being arrogant in the face of the storm.

After the leading edge of the change storm passes, a lull occurs where folks can find peace, where a sense of stability and serenity emerges even with the evidence of the storm all around.  During this period, those who prepared quickly assess and fortify, because they know more change will shortly follow.  They maximize this time in the lull to communicate heavily, to embrace those that may have been impacted significantly, and to encourage those that are so anxiously waiting the back edge of the change storm.  In many cases, during this quiet time, those that weren’t prepared originally (or were so arrogant to think that change would not affect them) can quickly take steps to prepare for that next wave.  Their preparations may be limited at this point because of all the change that has already taken place, but any preparation at any time is better than no preparation at all.

After the eye of the change storm passes, the high winds of change return as a phase two typically is implemented.  In a hurricane, the winds prior to the eye rotate a different direction than the winds after the eye.  In change, that may happen as well.  The winds of change prior may be preliminary steps to get to a stable platform to further change from.  After the lull, the winds may change direction causing even more impact to the organization, but setting the stage for something very special to emerge.

When the winds of change cease, the goal for any organization is to be better structured, better aligned, better prepared to succeed in the markets that you are competing in.  The organization that is being restructured and often times rebuilt is hopefully so much stronger than before and so much better equipped to win in the business battle. 

In actual hurricanes, the fear and uncertainty intensifies when communications is lost.  In business change, the same thing happens.  Today, we focus intensely on having robust communications channels and tremendous diversity in connectivity for routing.  That minimizes the damages to our communications networks in times of such disasters and greatly facilitates restoration when inevitable losses do occur.  In business, we need to do the same thing – fortify our communications during times of stability and success and then greatly use those lines of communication during the intensity of any change process.

In any change like with any hurricane (regardless of intensity), damage will occur, recovery will be needed, and champions and leaders will emerge.  Some people will be heroes and step out to lead those recovery efforts.  Others will need to be led, but will be equally important to the organization.  All will need to feel supported and respected throughout.

Once the change process has concluded, it is essential that everyone in our business community are aligned and focused on that next wave of growth and that next level of success.  We better be, because even with some respite in the traumatic winds of our business environment, another hurricane will always be sitting somewhere off shore, pointing its angry winds at our business foundation.