Update Your Expectations: The One Thing In Business That Needs To Change - globaladvisors.biz/inc-feed/20141028/update-your-expectations-the-one-thing-in-business-that-needs-to-change/ by David Sturt and Todd Nordstrom “I hate to say it because it’s cliché,” he said. “But, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result.” The man who spoke these words paced vigorously through an airport as we waited to board a flight. He was obviously frustrated by whatever was taking place back at the office. We didn’t disagree with the definition of insanity, however, we did find it ironic when, later in the conversation, he said, “Tell them they need to follow the process. It’s always worked in the past, so they can’t tell me it doesn’t work today!” The contradictions in this man’s conversation goes right to the heart of managing change. When something fails we expect people to change. But, when something has succeeded in the past, is it right to expect it to stay the same? Change is in fact far more predictable than just about anything else. Consider these recently published forecasted changes: A new report by McKinsey & Company predicts that in 2020, one in five cars will be connected to the Internet—with the number of connected cars expected to jump 30% each year for years to come. According to the current Cisco Visual Networking Index, ‘busy-hour’ Internet traffic will reach 1.0 petabits per second by the year 2018. That’s the equivalent of 335 million people streaming a high-definition video continuously. A new forecast from Forrester Research Inc.suggests that online retail sales are expected to grow from $263 billion in 2013 to $414 billion in 2018. Reading any list of predictions, innovations, and technological advances makes it obvious how quickly our world is changing—and that there are people and companies leading that change. However, inside our companies, it still doesn’t seem that people strategies are changing fast enough to keep up with the ever-changing business conditions. After all these years of changes (really since the beginning of time), we find it surprising that the process of change is not yet baked into our jobs—and our job descriptions. In fact, most job descriptions are static reflections of what was needed, or what is needed today. However, most also fall woefully short of encouraging adaptation to an ever-changing environment—they fall short of thinking about tomorrow. Consider this. The typical job description contains six to nine bullet points of job responsibilities and assigned tasks that relate to a particular role, and to a level on the organization chart. And, consider the fact that most job descriptions are reused and recycled over and over again, year after year, meaning they are ever more outdated to the core of what is expected from each employee today—not to mention the future. Does a job description truly restrain a person from positively handling change? It’s surprising how unintentionally “sticky” roles and job descriptions become. They define who we are, and tell us who we’re not. The box, or level, on the org chart creates unusually powerful walls around us—the way we think and behave. Over time, our roles and titles and job descriptions become a surprisingly big part of our identity. In fact, once a person’s role becomes synonymous with their identity, unintentional boundaries form that can severely limit innovation and erect barriers to change. Research to better understand how people break through existing constraints and deliver better than expected results reveals something fascinating about how difference-makers (people who somehow change the game or the outcome for someone else) think. The study conducted by The Cicero Group in conjunction with Forbes Insights and The O.C. Tanner Institute showed that difference makers reframe their roles. They do not get “owned” by their job descriptions. They see themselves as part of something bigger—or serving someone different. Once free of the boundaries imposed by the box they occupy on the organization chart, difference makers see opportunities for innovating, for changing things for the better, and creating the waves of change…and then riding them. Dr. Marty Cooper, the inventor of the cell phone, told us in an interview, “The feeling you get when you do something better than you have to is very important to me. If you have an attitude that you are being limited by your environment, then you are being unfair to yourself. People are capable of so much more than what other people expect. The fun that comes from doing something unique and more than what anyone asked you to do ought to encourage everybody.” Marty puts his finger on the heart of the issue. And, that begs the question: As leaders, are we spending too much energy focusing our people on outdated expectations, rather than on giving them room to adapt to their changing environments? A recent study called Making Change Work of 1,400 individuals—people ‘responsible for designing, creating or implementing change across their respective organizations’—conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value, revealed that only 20% of survey respondents are considered successful in managing change. 87% stated that not enough focus is placed on managing change in critical projects. Only 40% believe they have the right skills in place to successfully manage change projects in the future. And, it was shocking to find that only 49% of organizations hold their leaders accountable for effectively managing change. “More than 70% of the senior executives in a survey we recently conducted say that innovation will be at least one of the top three drivers of growth for their companies in the next three to five years,” reports a McKinsey and Company study. Still, the study also found, “some 65% of the senior executives we surveyed were only ‘somewhat,’ ‘a little,’ or ‘not at all’ confident about the decisions they make in this area.” Change is, of course, forever eminent. And, although the research and forecasting focused on people (engagement, performance, management, commitment, etc.) and innovation (product development, process improvement, service, etc.) are often divided into seemingly separate concepts, the opposite is actually true. Highly engaged, committed, and curious people are the architects of positive change in an organization, regardless of their title—they always have been and they always will be. Early adopters are often those who implement change—they recognize it, adapt to it and perfect it. So, what’s the one thing we think needs to change? It’s definition of the word insanity. People and companies who do the same thing over and over should actually expect different results—results that achieve less and less over time.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 06:05:14 +0000
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