From the most fundamental perspective, the biggest challenge that we all face today is realizing, accepting and embracing the concept of change.
The idea of “change” is not foreign to anyone. In fact, it is one of the few inevitable realities in life. The human race and every other surviving organism must naturally evolve to avoid extinction.
Why is it then that we still resist change? Why is it that we sometimes get complacent with the status quo, instead of striving to do more, be more, find a better way?
I propose that the critical battle that we all fight today—as individuals, organizations, companies, countries—is syncing our “clock” of change with that of the times around us.
Today, knowledge and information become stale extremely quickly. Organizations and individuals must be open to change. Their strategies must adapt, evolve and change at the pace determined by their marketplace, competitors, neighbors, environment, etc. Individuals and organizations must keep in sync with the pace of change required by the times we live in.
Imagine you are a business leader in the year 2008, and you believe you are the first to market with a new product. You have no competitors. Then, tomorrow, you suddenly realize a new company in Bangladesh provides the same product, with better quality, at a fraction of the cost.
Most low-performing individuals or organizations have a wave pattern (think sine wave) that is slow, sluggish or inconsistent with that of the life around them; they cannot keep up. Thus, they become irrelevant and forgotten.
In order to survive our fast-paced, knowledge driven world, first and foremost you must embrace change within yourself and your organization, so that you can stay relevant. In fact, you must learn to thrive on change by refabricating the genetics of your organization.
“Be open to change” is one of the famous mantras of management in the past decade.
But being open to change is no longer enough. This is not about accepting, tolerating or adapting to change. Rather, it is living, loving and thriving on change.
The most groundbreaking ideas, companies and organizations come out of abandoning conventional wisdom and making fundamental changes in how things are done.
There have been several studies on what it takes to be successful as an individual and an organization in this global world. My take is that you must adopt the following three principles:
1. Realize the world is flat and your next competition could be on the other side of the world
2. Adopt a culture of discipline and entrepreneurship
3. Surround yourself with a team that gets it—individuals who understand the need to think globally, and who thrive on finding a new and better way
Why is the pace of change today so fast? Some of the key drivers are the world’s “flatteners,” as Thomas L. Friedman describes in his book "The World is Flat:" global competition, outsourcing, the China Boom, knowledge economy and telecommunication.
When these drivers are coupled with the constant advancements in technology, the result is higher productivity, easier access to information and exponential growth in emerging markets. All of these trends are leveling the international playing field. But by adopting the principles outlined earlier, we can stay relevant.
At Artemis Solutions Group, we strive to ride on the coattails of change. Rather than approaching change with resistance and fear,we embrace it. We love it. We find that the best way to adapt to change is by continuously reinventing ourselves. We listen to our instincts and take action.
In order to support our craving for change, we’ve engineered an effective process to develop new ideas and concepts. We hold bi-weekly innovation sessions, where ideas for products, add-on modules, future services, practices and processes are vetted. From there, we advance to there search and development phase, and an initiative champion pushes the concept into production as quickly as possible.
And we seek to help our clients achieve the same. Many of our clients are now used to the concept of meeting frequently—several times per year—just to ask themselves, “What could we be doing better? How could we use technology to leverage our organization’s asset to make us best in class?”
Because we are not afraid of treading new ground, we know we will make mistakes. But we also know that we will learn from them, and those mistakes will make us stronger. Although uncharted territory is unnerving, the truth is that the greater risk lies in mediocrity.
Is your change cycle in sync with the wave of life? What about your business, or our beloved state of Michigan?
If not, there’s no time like to present to ask ourselves what we can do to get up to speed.