The Thing About Change
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Change is the one thing, in addition to death and taxes, that you can count on.
Whether in our personal or professional lives, after a while, you can count on the fact that the way things are cannot be the way things stay. Especially if the goal is to evolve in any sort of positive, developmental fashion.
Because the status quo, after a while, leads to complacency, which leads to stagnation, which leads to entropy, which leads to irrelevance.
In the professional world, we see this all the time, whether it is to do with business models, product or service offerings, or management and the people (no matter how senior) therein.
Because, at a certain point, the fact of the matter is that what it took to get you here, is almost always NOT what you need to take you forward.
And, so, change.
The trick is twofold.
The first is to figure out what the obstacle for change is.
The one thing to remember here is that it is never the customer or the market. It's always the business. This could be the product or service set on offer and it's competitive relevance to your target. It could be scale or capacity of the business (from sales through operations) to deliver to the needs of the market. But it could, just as much - usually more so - be people related - lack of fit, lack of motivation, lack of desire/inability to change, etc.
In all instances, these factors that were once drivers of growth become impediments. They begin to slow things down, get in the way. And worse, certainly in the case of people, they exhibit no desire to change - not in the earnest, fundamental, transformative ways that are necessary.
Because what it took to get you here, isn't what you need to take you forward.
The second challenge, therefore, is to figure out when the time is right for that change.
This is never easy. Yes, sometimes it is glaringly obvious and one has no choice. In others, and usually most situations, it is less so.
Because, again, in almost all instances, the barriers are human. We love the product far too much and in our minds eye, we still see its potential, even when the market doesn't. We don't want to push that strategy away, especially because we'd like to believe there's still life left in it. We don't want to move out the individuals that are now in the way because we value the contributions they made to get us here.
In these instances, as always, it's important to let the facts speak for themselves. The facts will tell you what the situation is, what the truth is. Remove the emotion. Remove the history. Remove the subjectivity. And then communicate and act accordingly.
You have to.
Of course, you must do it with care, with precision, with dignity, with respect. A thoughtful strategic shift, a managed product transition, an honorable exit. All appropriate, but all necessary.
Because what it took to get you here, isn't what you need to take you forward.
And, so, change.
