“Companies are always changing.” Sounds pretty obvious right? But how come a lot of companies make the best plans to steer them into the future and fail when those plans have to be executed? They sit around a table, nodding, giving their thumbs up and that’s it. Come back after a year and nothing has really changed.
Most companies or people don’t want to change. They’re pretty comfortable where they are. Profit is up from last year, customer satisfaction is at an alltime high and positive press reviews, what more do you need? But do you really think will remain the same just because you want them to? You don’t have to change, that’s true, but everything and everybody around you will.
Try to understand what you can change. You can’t influence or control everything or everyone. You can’t influence other departments, you can’t change the way people think, you can’t change how customers think, you can’t change the global economy and you can’t change your own limitations. It’s wrong to start with lots of restrictions, but when it comes to change, it’s better to be honest and understand what you CAN change.
What’s left? We can’t change people, customers or even the company as a structure. How can we change? We can change the place where and the way how people ‘experience’ the company. People’s behaviour can be influenced by the stimuli they get from the outside (behaviourism). Changing the way how they look at what they’re doing on the outside, and the inside will follow. For instance, if customers find your company not ‘available’ enough, why not propose everybody to put in his 8 hours a day when he wants to. They can work from 2 till 10pm, as long as they take on the extra assignment of being ‘available’ for the customer. There are a lot of ways how you can change without having to force it upon your team.
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