I’ve written a lot about change on this blog but by far most of the posts I’ve written on change have been this year. This is only a small sampling that doesn’t even include this weeks’ posts.
Business Lessons From a Dead Viking - July 2007
Stop Trying to Change. It’s Pointless. - October 2009
Managing Resistance as a Change Agent - July 2010
Evolution vs. Revolution: Which is Better for Organizational Change? - April 2011
Why Is Change So Hard? - August 2011
To Succeed You Must Be Willing To Change. To Change You Must Be Willing To Look Stupid - September 2011
The 5 Stages of Dealing with Change - September 2011
My Change Story: Reinvention After Failure - September 2011
Living In The Future Is Hard - October 2011
Dave Gray of XPLANE a Dachis Group company has a great post on the topic he wrote earlier this week.
We need to change the way we think about change.
If change is a constant, then the only real sustainable competitive advantage is to be able to grow and evolve continually, to stay ahead of the competitive pack.
You can’t do this with the traditional business structure that we’ve inherited from the industrial revolution. This isn’t like redecorating a room in your house or moving the furniture around. This is a major rehab project that might affect the foundations, the plumbing and everything else. It requires some pretty fundamental rethinking of the way your company is structured, how you execute your strategy, and how you’re going to evolve.
I really like his idea about applying portfolio management to the problem.
This is not change management but portfolio management.
Portfolio management is not so much about taking big steps as it is about balancing risk with opportunity, planting a lot of seeds and nurturing them until they are big enough to succeed (or fail) on their own. Portfolio management requires a tolerance for risk balanced with some big expectations, and an expansive view of what’s possible.
Portfolio management is more like managing a vineyard. A lot of your effort is actually focused on pruning. This has it’s own unique challenges.
Change as a topic is increasingly important, but we need to be looking at not just organizational change but individual change as well. All organizational change starts with individual change.
Similar Posts:
- Why Is Change So Hard?
- Evolution vs. Revolution: Which is Better for Organizational Change?
- To Succeed You Must Be Willing To Change. To Change You Must Be Willing To Look Stupid
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