One of the few permanent things in this world is change.
As you read a word in this column, change is happening. You just lost some of your hair. Hundreds of thousands of the cells in your body have died.
Change therefore happens, whether we like or not.
Surprisingly, most people resist change. They are usually those who are in love with the status quo. People resist change because they are afraid of the unknown.
To make people adapt to change, you need to convince them that the status quo is more dangerous than the unknown. Since change is going to happen anyway, we might as well manage it.
The history of mankind is fraught with so many examples of things, institutions and ideas which have gone extinct, because of their refusal to adapt to change or an inability to anticipate change even if it was already staring them in the face.
The American railroad companies who stubbornly stuck to the idea that they were railroad companies, instead of recognizing the signs of the humongous business of transporting goods and people on the Interstate highways.
Landlines vs Cellphones
Before, you could find a pay phone at practically every street corner. Today, only the museums have them. The other victims of the cellphone are the pagers and the two-way radio. Only Motorola was quick enough to change, but it no longer occupies the same eminent position in the communication industry.
When is the best time to effect change? Have you heard about the Sigmoid Curve Paradox?
Most people effect change when the organization is already on the decline. By then it is already too late as the organization is already in a crisis mode. The best time to initiate planned change is when the organization is at the top of its performance. Then it has the resources, the people and the time to conceptualize, design and implement the change that is needed.
Change will not happen, however, if most people in the organization do not understand, or are against the intended change or whose hearts are not won over to the side of change.
Any effort at change should have a change champion.
He is the leader who will win the hearts and minds of the people in the organization. He will convert the people in the organization into volunteers. He is the person who will inspire change.