Why Change? Why Bother?

Let’s face it. Flat was the new growth in 2009. Leaders sought to hold the line on spending, innovation and growth in the most uncertain economy in our modern times. But it can’t last. Wall Street will demand returns and shareholders will want their value.

One of the greatest challenges of achieving growth is realizing you may need to change. Companies don’t change. People do. Employees know the leadership sets the tone for change. They can tell if you are serious about change or not. We believe articulating an inspiring vision is a key element of any successful culture. So is having a culture where trying to news ideas is accepted.

Is your company set up to allow employees to bring forward new ideas without fear? Probably not.

On one end of the spectrum, leaders may be cautious optimists about growth where slow and steady wins the day. This mindset can be good for a slow to no growth market segment. However, in market segments with mid to rapid growth, leaders must instill a culture of growth by instilling a culture that is willing to try new ideas.

Here is what happens can happen when leaders do not dedicate resources to exploring change. We all loved the United States Postal service. Our moms talked to the mail man as though he were our family members. We used to buy and collect stamps, write love letters, send greeting cards and pay our bills once or twice a month, almost in a ritualistic fashion. With the onset of email, on line bill pay, the cost and overhead of the postal worker and the speed of life, Americas have reduced spending on US Postal Service $7B this year. The projections by year 2010 are to reach $238B. The mere fact the United States Postal Service was not looking at the changing consumer; their behavior and needs, was a sure fire was to become obsolete in 5 years.

Why change? Well, if we don’t we die.


The Core Opportunity: People
The most widespread problem in change management is winning hearts and minds throughout the organization on the importance of change. In a survey conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit, they sited three top three barriers to change:

• Igniting the culture ranked (54% of respondents).
• Lack of buy-in from local management (31% of respondents)
• Active, visible sponsorship from the leadership ( 31% of respondents)

In other words, companies are struggling with a very basic people issues; motivating them to abandon old ways of working for something new. Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter states, “In a typical large change program, it is not a matter of sending out the new organization chart or the new budget or the new strategy with a few projects. It is about changing people’s behavior, often a lot of people, and this is not trivial.”

Look, even we are changing. In the years passed we may have mailed a brochure, taken an airplane to give speech or clipped an article from the newspaper on our clients .Today we are sending e-blasts, using web-ex to present documents to large groups of people and going to social media blogs to find out what consumers are really saying.

The world is changing. Are you ready?

We help create a winning culture of sustainable growth through strategic, inspiring stories. Let’s get growing.

Call Airlift at (01) 312.492.7772 to talk about your growth plans.

CEO’s: How fast can you change?

Last week, NATO World Leaders met in London to discuss the global economy. Expectations were high as the world waits for the secret answers to the economic turn-around.

Some skeptics say, “But what did they do there?” The Leaders knew they accomplished a lot. When was the last time you led a meeting with 20 people from 20 countries whom you had never met and by the way, all speak different languages?

Reports say that after three days together, these world leaders only spent 8 hours in total in meetings. So what did they achieve in the eight hours?

~~Agreed to change the rules of regulation and compliance on capitalism
~~Agreed to develop an organization to serve as a watch-dog (not a regulator) against reckless investments
~~Agreed to regulation on Executive Pay that is deemed reckless and out of sync with average company pay. For example, CEO’s who earn 500 times their employee should only earn this if they created huge new markets and great wealth for an enterprise. This level of pay should not be earned just because of a job title. For example, the case of AIG where some Executives received high bonuses even though they were leading a failing organization – we’re glad most of them returned the dough.
~~Agreed to monitor tax haven products and level the playing field for tax shelters.
~~Agreed to give One Trillion Dollars to stimulate the global economy by selling gold reserves. Did you know One Trillion is 10 to the twelfth power - That is how big one trillion dollars is!!!

President Obama called for “unprecedented coordination” to make the changes occur. From all accounts, it looks like the success of the meetings did in fact achieve this.

Fareed Zakaria of CNN had a QA to address many of these questions and more. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/03/zakaria.g20/index.html

What they did not accomplish in this three-day meeting? Was a single answer to the global economic downturn problem or a clear architecture address? No...but they are well on their way through team work, open dialogue and a will to solve it together. Sound familiar?

Since metrics are paramount to any change management effort, we can analyze consumer confidence level scores and the “market” to understand the impact of decisions coming from this meeting. The market responded favorably last week and rallied up each day the leaders met. Obama’s approval rating is high as well. Clearly, people seek confident, optimistic leaders in these times.

So how does this apply to you?
A new brand story drives strategic change. In this example, Leaders from the top 20 nations are gathered to work together to improve lives, economic stability and revitalize the world, together. This IS THE strategic shift --20 nations coming together on global issues, fast.

Similarly, as markets shift and your organization finds a need to be nimbler to compete in this economy, what are you doing to collaborate on crafting a new and more relevant brand story for your firm.

1. When was the last time you accomplished all that in eight hours?

2. What three things should a leader do to collaborate and make critical change happen, fast?

3. What are the barriers to achieving real lasting beneficial change in your organization?

Any ideas?

Let us at Airlift know. Comment on our blog.
Or you can reach us at srosen@airliftideas.com or call us at 312.492.7772.

Source: CNN International News