Making Holes below the Waterline

Change is a healthy part of any enterprise intent on thriving long-term. History, and even present day, is littered with countless examples of those who failed to change in timely response to the market and disappeared as a result. In short, failure to adapt eventually means irrelevance, regardless of the organization type. To successfully meet new demands requires anticipating customer needs and expectations because once market share begins falling off, the time may have passed for reinvention. There are some important definitions you have to study. You have to understand mistakes in technique with any change management effort, plan on mistakes in technique. This is the ‘how’ of change, the specific methods and experiments to move toward the vision. One speaker compared a technique mistake to accidentally making holes in a boat above the waterline. While not ideal, the boat can take a few without too much trouble. And you also have to understand mistakes in principle. Although techniques can evolve readily, there should be underlying principles that remain constant. For example, team members should treat each other with respect, even when there’s disagreement. To use the boat analogy again, ignoring a principle is like making holes below the waterline. This is much more serious.