Knowing You Have to Change Isn’t Enough

In my last post I talked about how leaders need to change if they want their organisations to change. I think most leaders on the wrong side of change know something has to be different, but what, exactly? And how? It is not enough to know we need to change; we must also know what to change to, and how. I can give a start on what, but how is much harder. It’s very much an individual journey. I’m not sure there’s a one-size-fits-all answer. We’ll start with what, and see how things go. <img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/0*TMjXqFnSBcJ7MR16" style="height:468px; width:700px" /> Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@goian?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Ian Schneider</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Unsplash</a> Your organisation is almost certainly built on command and control principles introduced in the 1800s. I’m not knocking those principles, they served industry well for more than 100 years. But times change, and needs change. Unfortunately, ingrained habits and organisational memory is very difficult to change. Let’s go back to the 1800s for a minute. Management at this time, wanted to know what everybody was doing. They wanted to know why. And they wanted to know who to blame when things didn’t happen correctly (see <a href="https://www.leanessays.com/2007/09/train-wreck-management.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">train-wreck management</a> for a primer on why). Company structures, with functional silos, and super-specific job descriptions, are the result of management wanting to know who to blame — who to fire — when things go wrong. <a href="https://medium.com/@nrcantor/knowing-you-have-to-change-isnt-enough-e1a7baecbea1">Learn More</a>