According to the Institute of Leadership and Management, managing change effectively is going to be one of the coming year’s hot topics. 

 

We are already in unchartered waters with a new political landscape. The economic and environmental pressures to do more with less and to discover new ways of living and working have increased uncertainty in an already uncertain world.

 

So, what’s to do?  Billy Ocean would say “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”, but that was back in 1985.  25 years on, simply toughing it out may well not be enough.  What is certain is that doing more of the same will not produce different results (Albert Einstein agrees with me).

 

Around 10 years ago Wolfgang Grulke wrote a book called 10 Lessons from the Future.  I read it again the other week and was struck by how many of his foretellings have come about.  What did he know that most of us missed?  Clearly the clues are out there, we just need to know what to look for.

 

I recently listened to a presentation by Tom Peters on Leadership in the 21st Century.  Apart from it being entertaining, it was also very interesting.  One thing he said was that great leaders are “dealers in hope”  – they help you “believe that the sun will come up tomorrow.”  To me, that means engaging staff with your vision for the future and empowering them to “do more than they dreamed possible”, to paraphrase the actor Robert Altman.

 

Change is definitely a constant and it is here to stay, but it is not going to occur in a straight line from the past, through the present and into the future.  To quote Doctor Who, “People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect… but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly…. timey-wimey…. stuff”.  Definitely complicated.

 

How to manage a big ball of wibbly wobbly stuff then?  Here are a couple of ideas:-

 

Choose a future you want and create a compelling vision that your staff can buy in to.  Scan the horizon together as far as you can see and use your peripheral vision – that’s what fighter pilots do. Identify the distant specs that will inevitably become opportunities or obstacles in the future.

 

Adapt and respond quickly to anticipated changes.  Look at your products and services. Review your channels and markets.  Ask your customers how their needs are changing.  Teach your staff to be agile too.  It can be difficult sometimes, but it’s vitally important.

 

Have you noticed that children are often better with new technology than their parents?  Children are more able to take risks without the fear of failure.  We learn to fear failure and avoid risk as we grow older.  Some of that is a good thing – it stops you burning your fingers or getting run over – but some is not so useful.  Learn how to recognise unhelpful discomfort or fear and move beyond it.

 

 

I ride a motorbike (a Honda Blackbird since you ask) and that can definitely be risky.  But I love it.  It’s not the most practical or safe mode of transport but it’s not about getting from A to B.  It’s about the in-between.