Disruption
Relentless disruption
Good managers face endless pressure to overcome obstacles and move, quickly, in fresh directions.
Such disruption has roots in the external environment and also within the organisation itself.
Environment
Economic slowdown, calls for employee well-being, swings in customer appetite or society’s values, technology advances, and climate change all demand new ways of working.
Organisation
‘Local’ organisational difficulties also require attention: unskilled managers, low engagement, broken processes, limited budgets, and personal agendas; the list goes on.
Going round in circles
Managers highlight issues; executives paint the future. Some colleagues get it; others bury their heads in the sand.
The vision is distilled into a project ‘roadmap’ with goals and targets; rewards encourage support.
Comms campaigns explain why change matters, and reveal a blueprint for how to move forward.
Still, nine times out of ten results fall short of expectations. The more urgency is felt, the more old ways dig in.
Burden for all
This merry-go-round of change is a burden for everyone, both inside and beyond the boardroom.
How you know you’re stuck
We talk about sustainability, yet no one is moved to take a cold shower.
Last year’s business plan is still the best slide deck we have ever seen.
Many colleagues have good ideas, but they are soon lost in the system.
Results are often not as good, and costs higher, than we expect to see.
The problems we come across are always someone else’s fault.
Some people talk about culture, but the rest of us have real work to do.
Colleagues leave work tired, then spend the evening on email.
Sure, I can work harder. But will anyone see the difference I make?
Turn the corner
We developed the thinking and practice of ‘turn the corner’ in response to the questions that usual change methods fail to answer.