First of all, one thing is for sure. The human condition does not accept change very well. It will process change, sometimes by force more than by choice, but to embrace that process comfortably is another deal altogether. Just because a music enthusiast does not prefer to accept cassette tapes or digital recordings does not mean they are able to remain where eight track equipment was onced processed. Eight track formats simply disappeared! The change was forced upon those who preferred to remain with eight track music. It was not a choice. Change happened with or without the acceptance of the user.
The human condition has been faced with this kind of process for a few decades. I remember when the cover of a popular trade publication several years ago, I think it was Business Week, showed a picture of a business guy who had a deer in the headlights look on his face with the caption reading, "Change Or Be Changed!" As sophisticated as we might like to be, we do not accept change very well. We often times wait until it is forced upon us. Then with no useful choices remaining, we comply. What's more, our compliance is covered with bits and pieces of sprinkled dissatisfaction. We are not easily convinced to buy in.
Welcome to business leadership. The art of convincing groups of people, stakeholders, institutions of finance, customers and associates all coming together at one time producing the growth of synergy that is required to help the model win big. Getting the whole lot to buy-in at each changing corner of strategically timed movements that include all of the elements of change so they can become the call of the day to mold out the final 'look' that represents success...this becomes the deal. Welcome to the art of business leadership.
There is no crystal ball to help business leaders manage their changing futures properly. Alvin Toffler's book proved that many predicted and useful outcomes did in fact occur. However, it also found that some of the more telling scenarios that were once predicted never saw the light of day. If a business leader was to choose one of those specific scenarios to follow they would have become dead wrong in their business plans. The future holds too many uncertainties. Analyzing all of the variables correctly is a serious crap shoot. Business leaders truly recognize this complicated process. Missing the mark is very doable. Ask Mr. Johnson of J.C. Penney's about this truth. It can become extremely common. Many business leaders face this challenge on a daily basis. It plagues their efforts to grow and prosper well. Even the smart ones can easily miss the mark.
The landscape of planning for business success today is beginning to reveal how abstract it can truly become. Very few winners circle the streets with loads of success and these losers are easily found in every living community. They are not rare commodities. Struggling business models are everywhere. In fact, much more are losing financially than are winning. The files of finance are chocked full of millions who struggle each day to move forward. The world is littered with hurting business models. Even the big establishments that have institutionalized their winning ways are fighting to find the next successful corner. Just take a look at Microsoft, Dell, Chase, Disney, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, Boeing, Apple, Proctor and Gamble...the list can fill a bathtub with reams of paper that reflect the strategies of how much these business leaders work on keeping away from the potential for failure. Their futures are uncertain. At least Toffler got that part correctly predicted.
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Do not get me wrong, I play this very same game. I have learned how to make some of these techniques work well to produce more income. I have discovered a lot of things about how to 'spin' it properly to attract more capital. As that capital arrives, much of it is real. The balance between working it well and delivering it strongly is and always will be the most complicated part of the artful challenge to develop a useful series of workable leadership skill sets in the business world. Some have learned how to play it well. Just look at how deep their pockets have become.
Uncertainty comes with the idea that our controls have limitations. The truth remains, they do not. Safety in growth is over-rated. Growth comes with taking risks. It comes to the table carrying a lot of unwanted baggage. The real business leaders who carry a measure of success on their balance sheets recognize these immutable laws of business success. Success does not usually arrive without the face of many scars. Any new business owner must quickly learn how to navigate this truth in order to eventually win well. As well as some old-timers remain in the game of business, some must either get out of the way or change how they perceive what kinds of risks they must eventually learn how to finally step out and take. Business leadership can be this kind of ugly work. It is not a place for the faint of heart. It has some unwelcomed corners where uncomfortable chairs are waiting to be used. Winners finally figure out these types of truths.
One does not need to become a professor of economics to understand how uncertain the small business world has become. It is simply filled with too much complication to be easy anymore. It has become extremely difficult work. It is touchy territory. It has too many unwanted developments. It carries too many unintended consequences. Each consequence that arrives unwanted lowers the profits by a larger portion than one might ever expect or plan to cover. As a result, the increased effort to incorporate added attention to risk management and risk avoidance has become the silent killers of proper risk taking. The balance of these efforts has fallen off the scale of measurement. We therefore find that innovation skips taking a risk altogether. Without innovation, the business model becomes subject to change by force instead of by proper design. This is the beginning of its end to prosperity.
To survive this tragic scenario, this unwanted pattern of leadership ways, opens the doors wider to a greater urge to 'spin' more often. We cook the books, we break the rules, we violate the laws of compensation and we try anything to cheat our way around the eventual loss we see in our mirrors. We 'spin' our way down the widened path of business wrong doings. We become disappointed, disallusioned and dissatisfied. But we can make the next deposit count enough to keep the doors open for one more day! We can temporarily chase away or outrun the PacMan who is coming right behind us to eat up the path where we are headed to go. We end up doing in business what we must do to stay alive. Our planning has become long postponed and sometimes completely disappears. Prosperity is no longer in our sights. Survival has taken over.
It is critical to understand how this human condition works. It has all to do with promoting, managing and controlling how we adapt to change. Change is what we do when we are faced with loss. Change is what we do when we are faced with moving forward. Change is the key. Change is the art. Change is the cry.
Toffler did not write about what to expect in our future. He wrote about how to adapt to change, properly.
Until next time...
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