Another view of change

A while back I had the exceedingly pleasurable experience of being ready and waiting in the right place and the right time.  It was a small day at The Pipe (our local break) and a group of surfers hung around in-shore, competing for little waves.

 I had seen a big set when I paddled in and decided to wait further out.  It was a long wait.  And then a huge wall came in and I had the joy of watching the others paddling out as I streaked past on a glistening green wall – Man!  Satisfaction on many levels.

The benefits of lying in wait

It was something like this, only I took a more classic stance (ahem).  I found this photo on Magic Seaweed, taken by James Cummings.  Someone commented on the looks of longing and envy on some of the faces of those paddling out.  James, a photographer based in North East England, kindly allowed me to use his photo to illustrate this posting.  Thanks James.

While I was surfing I thought the situation nicely illustrates the change process described by J Richard Hackman in “Leading Teams”.

Corporate-life cycles between relative calm and rampant turbulence.  And it is in times of upheaval that we are able to implement change.  However, to take advantage of the emerging opportunities we need to be ready.  The door of opportunity never stays open very long.

J Richard Hackman suggests three ways to make the most of opportunities provided by times of turbulence:

• Being prepared.
• Lying in Wait
• Forcing the issue

Being prepared

Because the doors for change open and close quickly you have to be ready to walk through when they open.  Being prepared is hard work, involving:

Study; reading, visiting other organisations, reflecting

Imagining; creating visions and planning action.

Politics; sharing your vision with others, aligning interests of the right people, building coalitions.

Lying in wait

This requires creative patience. We must learn not to push for change at the cost of the scope of change we envisage.  JRH quotes Freud who said “he who knows how to wait need make no concessions”.  Lying in wait is about is about waiting for openings.

Forcing the issue

But perhaps the turbulence is too long in coming. At times like this, a creative leader can produce enough turbulence in their sphere of influence to bring about change.  Some examples:

• David Rock suggests an exercise in which leaders go through their schedules and cut 75% out of the time for each meeting to increase focus and creativity.
• An executive may slash budget.
• An organisation will deliberately increase their debt burden to pay a substantial dividend to shareholders forcing management to tighten controls.

So, what change are you itching to implement?

How prepared are you?

Are you biting your tongue as you wait?

Is it time to take the risk to force the issue?

Written by Stephen Quirke for Strategyworks.co.za