Proceed Until Apprehended

For organizations on the brink of being irrelevant, finding a way for ideas to surface and take hold is essential.

Stagnant organizations have a culture of “hanging on,” of trying to keep things as they are. With change everywhere, it’s a doomed strategy. It may feel safe to protect proven strategies, but those strategies were proven for a different environment. Reality changed beneath their feet. The world has changed the way you communicate with customers, the way you recruit employees, the outputs others value, your competitive differentiation, how you’re scrutinized by the public.. the list goes on. The rules are very, very different.

If that’s not enough to stimulate an examination of your approach, think about this: Whether you go down this route or not, some staff are going to feel uncomfortable. You get to choose who. Keep your organization as it is and the people that are most uncomfortable and feel like they’re getting forced out of your organization will continue to be the ones who best see the future. The ones that want change. The ones with the ideas.

Here’s some steps to evoke the new approaches and responsive ideas that exist right within the organization:

1) State a desire for ideas and change

OK, pretty simple, but not to be overlooked. You have to announce a desire for new ideas. You have to document it in a plan. You have to write it on a wall. You have to formalize the want. The majority of your staff won’t even start down this path if it’s not even officially sanctioned.

2) Model the habit

Take some risks. Push an idea that’s right but isn’t popular. Speak truth to power. Proudly play the heretic role. It will be noticed.

3) Create a receptive environment

There’s currently a system that grinds down aberrations. It starts with managers that don’t like surprises. It also includes policies and procedures that round the corners off of everything. This is a good place for you to be a heretic.

4) Accept some unconventional ideas

By no means do I suggest that you accept loony stuff. You’re running a business; you’re pragmatic. But if there are effective solutions that will create some healthy tension and perhaps some resistance, please don’t make compromises before you roll it out. For the sake of your organization, it’s time to make a different group feel unsettled.

5) Build the idea championing capacity of your staff

If you fail on steps 1 to 4, there will still be individuals that try to instigate change. It will cost them dearly in the short term, but some are going to do it anyway. You could have more of those. The best I can suggest to start them on this journey is to give them leadership training. Help them to examine their beliefs and challenge them to change the ones that need to be changed. If they can do it for themselves, they might start doing it for you.

By the way, I don’t see this as an a la carte menu. They all need to be done. If you want change, it’s full scale or it’s just something to prove you tried.

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