What Needs Changed in Your Organization?— (adapted from Built to Change by Edward Lauler)

Organizations are built to be stable.  But consider this: successful management approaches and business strategies often have an expiration date.  Change is required, yet the organization “bucks” change.  We need stability to perform well today with today’s customer expectations and today’s competitors and today’s macroenvironment. 

Still, we must change to be able to succeed tomorrow.  Somehow, we must do both.  The author challenges us to design our organizations around practices that encourage change, not hinder it.  We need to make our companies “change ready”—even to the point that our people “love change.” 

In fact, in today’s world, the ability to change may be an organization’s best sustainable source of competitive strategy.  Most competitive strategies are easily copied.  Being able to change effectively and efficiently is not easy to copy!

So we are faced with two possibly conflicting objectives:

·        Focus on continuous improvement so that we can perform well today

·        Seek to alter our strategy or develop a new strategy to prepare ourselves to perform well tomorrow

The above will not happen naturally (remember, organizations are built to be stable).  You must create a culture that “is already, but not yet.”  That is, one that is working on creating today’s and tomorrow’s success.  Feeding this engine must be a constant flow of reliable and timely information regarding:

·        Your organization’s performance; how are you doing?

·        Your capabilities and competencies; how strong are you?

·        You environment; what’s going on and what does it mean (with your competitors, your customers, technology, etc.)?

This information can help you make a case for change with your people.  It’s not that people resist change.  They just need a valid reason to change.  And your evaluation and reward system should reward behavior that supports such change.

Values that are CORE 

But before you create this dynamic and fluid organization that can respond to both today’s and tomorrow’s challenges, you must create a solid foundation upon which to build this dynamo.  That solid foundation comes from values which are truly core.  Unfortunately, according to the author, few organizations have values that are truly core.  How can you tell if your organization’s values are CORE?  The author offers the following tests: 

·        A core value has existed in the organization since its earliest days.

·        A core value will still be around 100 years from now.

·        There have been events where the organization lived the value and paid some cost or suffered in some meaningful way for doing so. 

If you evaluate your organization’s values in light of the above and come up empty, then set out to identify values that are core to your company—and make them aspirational—what you aspire to be.  And use these core values to guide all that you do. 

A Place to Start—Core Christian Values (Galatians 5:22)

But the fruit of the Spirit is:

·        Love

·        Joy

·        Peace

·        Longsuffering

·        Kindness

·        Goodness

·        Faithfulness

·        Gentleness

·        Self-control 

Can you imagine an organization whose core values reflect the fruit of the Spirit?  Would you like to work for such an organization?  Would you like to create such an organization?  What’s stopping you? 

Dream

A solid foundation built on values that are core.  An organizational structure and culture built on that foundation that supports rather than resists change.   

Look around your organization.  What’s the next thing that needs changing?  If you’re in charge, you need to know.  If you don’t know, you need to find out.  

Keith 

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