THE TOOLKIT
The only constant is change.

One of my favorite quotations that exemplifies this comes from General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army. He said, “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” Nothing is static. Everything is in a constant state of flux. Businesses and people that have understood this, have done well and survived with longevity. Those that haven’t, no longer exist.

Why do organizations reorganize? One Senior VP that I used to work with even said that his company was not an organization; rather it was a reorganization in an effort to get his people around the concept of constant change. The competition changes. The industry changes. Customer needs change. Resources change. Leadership changes. Employees change. Desires change. Value changes. Everything changes, and when these changes occur, it’s not because some CEO decided to be a jerk and change our marketing campaign because he liked blue over red because blue matched his eyes or because some manager over in manufacturing decided she wanted to be a jerk and hold up sales just to hold up sales. Rather, it’s usually because our CEO just received a report saying that the marketing slogan in it’s current format is offensive in foreign countries or our Manufacturing Manager just found a flaw in the product and doesn’t want poor quality to leave the production room floor.

We seem to be able to accept this more in our personal lives than in our professional ones. Do you live in the same house you used to live in 10 or 20 years ago? Do you still drive the same car you drove five years ago? Do you interact with your spouse, kids, and family the same way you did one year ago? Are you going out to see the same movie you did one month ago? Are you going to eat the same thing you had last night or the night before? Perhaps these situations are more palatable because we have more control. As such, we’ve already conditioned ourselves to be more accepting of the change. However, it still requires adaptation. This is the reason the human race is still here compared to all other species. We are the most adaptable species on the planet. We inherently possess this trait. The question is whether or not we choose to exercise it. This skill of adaptation is probably more critical now in business than ever before. Change today happens faster and more often than before. And tomorrow, it will happen twice as fast and three times as often, which dovetails right into the third unwritten law.