In this episode of the Future in 5, I discuss what is the biggest barrier to change for organizations? In other words, why are some organizations not changing? This question was put to me at the recent Microsoft Leadership Summit in Prague where I spoke to about 300 CXOs from the Czech Republic and surrounding areas on the future of work. When we think about the future, we think about Millennials, collaboration technologies, flexible work programs, or any of the many leadership and management models and approaches. The strategies are there. The tactics are there. The examples are there. The research is there. But, where organizations struggle is not not having enough information to be able to make these changes. The biggest barrier to change is mental. We have to remember that a lot of people running our organizations were taught to operate in a very process-oriented, linear way. However, we live in a very different world where a lot of these processes and ways of thinking and evolving our organizations no longer work. To recap a previous episode titled “Why It’s Different This Time,” we live in a very connected world, the pace of change is increasing, and everyone in every organization everywhere around the world is being disrupted. In this episode I share my perspective on this barrier and what organizations need to do to succeed. It will be very interesting to see what happens to organizations over the next five years — to see which organizations will disappear off of the Fortune 500 list and which organizations will surface as the new incumbents. Why do you think organizations are not changing? Tune in, and share your thoughts and insights.
3 thoughts on “What is The Biggest Barrier to Change?”
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Ha ha, serendipity!
I was just blogging about sthg very similar 2 days ago http://t.co/O8AYFcm0hk
Completely agree that the barrier to change is mental, and that’s why we need to work on change at various levels (individual, collective, management, enthusiasm, competence, political credentials etc.).
And I’m also thinking that change is going through intentions to standards to habits, but we tend to assume that by making the intentions clear the change is there, forgetting that going through impersonating the change you want (i.e. setting the standards yourself in your behaviour) is difficult enough, and that habits of following the standard take even more time, going through an AIDA-process of sorts.
Thanks for the thoughts!
Ewen
Hi Ewen,
Thanks for sharing and glad we agree! I’l take a look at the link.
More serendipity!
The source of resistance to the technology-enabled distributed workplace has not…well, changed…since the 1980s when a group of us began working in this field (it was called telecommuting back then): Executives aren’t hearing answers to “What’s the ROI to radically disrupting my organization?” Managers aren’t hearing answers to the question “How do I know they’re working if I can’t see them?”
When I quit smoking 30 years ago this month, to make that decision I needed to “see” what it would be like on the other side, to picture myself as a non-smoker, and I needed to know that the ultimate outcome of the decision would be worth the pain and suffering I was about to endure. It’s no different for executives. Abandoning old engrained habits, as harmful as they are, is really hard to do. They better be able to stand in front of every person affected by this distributed workplace that it will all be worth it. We need to give them a glimpse of the other side, present them a clear path to getting there quickly, and prove to them it will be more than worth the pain and suffering upon arrival.