Other than creating history, the new president elect in US got something back in fashion – Change. Change is now the buzzword, be it change in leadership, change in the way this world is looked at, change in the products, change in the channel, you name it. World is ready to accept change in all aspects of life.
This entire environment of change begets one question – When is anyone ready for Change? What is different in environment today for people to welcome change so openly? We do not have to go back too much in history to understand this.
A win by any one of the two Democrat candidates would have created history (either the first Woman President or the first Afro-American, which it finally was), but the actual lead by Obama started the day Lehman Brothers filed for Bankruptcy and Dow tanked maximum since 9/11. Indicators for worsening economy were visible from the start of the year itself and saving of Bear Sterns was an attempt to rein in the downturn. However, Lehman did it in. Not a single week has passed since then without more gloomy news and further tanking up of Wall Street. And all this while Obama was building up lead. The lower the market went, the deeper the cut got, higher the lead for Obama. Change was getting acceptable. Was it because there was nothing left to lose?
For the last 15 years, the world economy has seen robust growth. The portfolios have steadily climbed, targets have been surpassed and huge increments & bonuses were the norm. Obviously everyone loved this phase and wanted this to continue. Talk about change was met with resistance and the change advocates were seen as party poppers. After all the going is good, why change at all? Unless the advocates of change were management writers (notice how the most covered topic for writings at any time is inversely proportional to acceptance of the same?). They were the people who could ‘visualize’ the future and were advocating change to be ready. However, only a few managers saw this as a way forward.
Poof, and here came the economic crisis. Dashboards are not looking good, matrices are worsening, targets not met, and bonuses etc are only in dreams. Keeping one’s job without much of bloodshed is seen as a huge incentive. Portfolios have halved, and with no capital left to invest, situation could not be worse. So, is change acceptable? Damn well it is!! The way things have worked till now are not yielding results anymore and time has come to look at things differently
Most of the newly affluent Indians have entered the workplace in the last 15 years. So this essentially is the only downturn they have witnessed. Hence there is a resistance to accept the sudden change. Our leaders still talk about high growth for Indian economy in coming years, despite the data for last few months proving to the contrary. The realities on the ground are in line with a downturn. There has been compression in the loans being offered to customers. New projects are on hold; no new investments are being planned. Cost cuts, squeeze on travel budgets etc are only a few instances in the public knowledge of results of downturn (the public fiasco of a leading Airline on sacking staff, is an example), but the fact is, it is happening. So is there openness to change? I bet the staff of the above mentioned airline today is open to any changes the management wants to make including a cut in Salary.
Essentially, openness to change is directly proportional to the mess anyone is in. After all, there is very little to lose. And the logic on resisting change loses significance in these times. This is true for all kind of entities, countries, organizations, sporting teams, everyone. If ever there was an opportune time to effect that change you have been thinking for quite sometime, it is now!! Go ahead, do it now, you would face the least resistance. But the change has to have a clear objective, clear goals. And then it has to be communicated clearly and in a transparent way to get the team along. It would be accepted and implemented. Manager would have to detail out the change to the last leg. Every member of the team needs to be explained the contribution that person brings in. So to repeat, the time to change is here and now!!
Unless you are one of those far sighted managers, who had already seen what was coming and put changes way ahead of time, sometimes even pushing despite opposition. In that case, believe me you are already being hailed as a ‘visionary’. And yes, you can write a book!!
Hi Sir, Change and the "Yes, We can" campaign has given hope to American people. I see this a huge challenge as the faith reposed by the citizens is HUGE and would be extremely difficult to match. Campaign strategies usually are linked to socio economic scenario. A case in point is BJP's 2004 India shining campaign. India was truly shining then but this did not covert into electrol votes. Anti incumbency is a much more frequent phenonmenon and I suspect America has also gone ahead and desired change from "current incumbent" and his policies.
Another aspect to change is circumstances. Change when situation is good prevents the bad times from coming on. If you see offices in India, There is more departmental cooperation and team work than the "good times". When one faces external problems it is time to close ranks. Change is inevitable, but the timing & adaptibility to it determines many aspects of this ever changing world.
Gaurav Chatterjee
November 11, 2008 at 10:14 AMSir, A very thought provoking writeup indeed.
We have been taught since time immemorial that "Change is the only constant in this dynamic world". However, the biggest stumbling block to change is human mind. Unless challenged, we always resist change.
If one looks back sometime in time, one sees that there must have been someone who wanted to change the way we cooked food and changed the way we lived so someone invented fire, domesticated animals and started agriculture; there must have been someone who must have thought that we need to communicate in a better way and invented launguages; similarly we invented arithmetics, sciences, different forms of arts, weapons, and the list goes on and on and on.
The question is why do we resist change now. What comes to my mind is today all of us have seen glorious days of econmic boom and have unfortunately created in our sub-concious state a very strong set of beliefs on our existing processes, systems and intellect. And this value system resist any change. This is stopping us from re-inventing better stuffs. In short we have stopped growing.
If today I am not better than what I was yesterday I dont think I have learnt anything today and 1 precious day is wasted. New learnings should provoke me to conduct experiments. Some of it will fail and some of it will be successful. But what succeeds today will define tomorrow and this is what which will keep me ahead of others.
Change is imminent.
Change is inevitable.
If YOU dont change, SOMEONE else will do it for you
Anonymous
November 11, 2008 at 5:53 PMHi Sridhar,
Most memorable leaders over the last century have emerged at times of crisis and have been very good orators. But what makes Obama stand way above the others is the sheer credibility his personality brings to the proposition of "change"
No blue blood, money or prior distinguished accomplishments in the public arena for a stepping stone, he has perhaps as effectively proven that change is truly possible race notwithstanding. It definitely adds a great amount of credibility to the proposition.
This is one of those romantic moments in history.
I am still on the fence to see if he would be able to manage the situation hand at hand, but at least you feel like backing the chap.
cheers
Upendra Namburi
November 13, 2008 at 11:45 PMGood thoughts Sridhar. But extending the US elections to business lock, stock and barrel might be a bit of a stretch in my opinion. 'Change' seems to be the flavor of the season and one is tempted to view everything through the same viewing glass.
You are right in saying that change becomes more acceptable at bad times. But waiting for bad times to make the change is self-defeating in my opinion. Sometimes it is just too late. So if there was a change you were wanting to make, dont wait for the bad times just because you can'get away' with it.
- George
George Chacko
November 18, 2008 at 4:22 AM