It seems that many leaders get stuck waiting on buy-in during times of disruption. A term I define as a fearful leader’s excuse to remain status quo. Leaders who always chase buy-in have the wrong team or don’t understand the importance of job descriptions. It seems that many organizations pride themselves on simply doing common sense things. They are excited by simply doing what is expected, rather than creating the unexpected. Is accepting change anything special? Or does that saying breed mediocrity? In today’s business climate everyone has to accept change, it’s a basic job description, not any great accomplishment.
“Accepting Change is nothing special, get excited about creating change.”
Would it not be better to promote the ability to Create Change? If we simply focus on accepting change, we are then admitting this. Our organization will remain status quo until someone else creates needed changing. Then we will be eager to implement. Of course only if we get buy-in. When your organization voices loudly they accept change what they are voicing is this. “Our organization is reactive”.
Don’t let buzz words cripple innovation. Words have power they create a mindset. Too many organizations are outlining and defining common sense accomplishments and then adopting this commonality as their keys to successes. In reality, they are merely the keys to status quo.
Exceptional organizations filled with extraordinary people. Will create exceptional customer experiences and are driven to increase their remarkability. Exceptional organizations understand that their remarkability is more important than their marketing.
Exceptional organizations don’t fool themselves into complacency by believing their customer relationships will survive a competitor’s better experience.
Exceptional Organizations understand the value and importance of the phrase “Currently this is how we do it”.
Exceptional Organizations look where others don’t. They collaborate with innovative thinkers and doers who create change.
Exceptional Organizations understand the importance of building teams that challenge one another over teams that focus on pacifying one another. These Exceptional Organizations do not build corporate cultures based on internal customers, their culture is based on providing exceptional experiences to their external customers.
It seems that many organizations have allowed the needs of their teams to determine the needs of their customers. Obviously, organizations must provide exceptional work environments, and when the people in the organization can sacrifice their needs to ensure the customers’ needs are delivered, and delivered with an exceptional experience. It is then they become an exceptional organization.
“The pain associated with improvement is only appreciated by those who are determined to improve.”
Improvement only comes from accountability and when accountability is put on hold waiting for buy-in, creating great customer experiences will suffer by default. Exceptional organizations will deliver exceptional customer experiences. Status quo companies will always believe their customer relationships are more important than their customers’ experience. This is the reason new vendors who deliver exceptional experiences. Defeat incumbents who believed their long relationships allowed them the comfort of complacency.
In closing; “Imagination, ingenuity, and fortitude will never be friends with complacency.”
Great article Ray. I have had a lot of luck being an advocate of Dynamic change and improvement. The biggest thing I have had to learn is that even when I get 100% buy in and they press the go button it still take a lot of time to put the pieces in place to actually execute.
Great article. All the best practices for driving change center around leadership, ownership, and accountability. When we miss at least one of these things, we will get bogged down with buy-in, acceptance, and resistance. Though we experience these things with any form of change, the impact of them is much much greater.
Ken, Thanks for your comments. My thoughts are that too many organizations become victims of benchmarking. Today because of technology organizations must have the capacity to not only maintain they must always improve their customers experience. The days of fighting for buy-in are over. It’s a fast moving game and legacy management styles will stifle growth.
Ray, what you say is very true. But, I wonder too if sometimes we are so intent on having change that we fail to realize that often, doing something very well and not trying to change it has value. Today change and innovation come at such a dizzying speed, lead by hi tech, that chaos replaces consistency and the client suffers. It is almost like change is made for the sake of change. Change becomes the goal.
Any company needs people that accept change vs. creating it. If everyone is pushing for change a company will never find a notch where it can succeed. Change can only succeed if it comes at a pace that employees can digest it and blend it into what already works well.