We must act and adapt

(suite de l’Article précédent)

The change management initiatives of the past have been a resounding failure. 60–70% of them fail. 

What kind of company or business could accept such a failure rate with such tremendous impact on the company bottom line? Why would companies and businesses continue to initiate « change management » projects knowing this horrendous success rate? Why is this failure rate so high anyway? Do we really need outside teams of consultants to orchestrate the change? Do we really need an 8-step plan to succeed?

Isn’t there an alternative?

Of course there is!

Change occurs everywhere, all the time. It simply occurs and people adapt. It does not need to be forced or orchestrated from the top.

Whether it is a change in the market, a disruptive technology, a new boss or a new virus, people adapt.

Nobody ever asked the novel coronavirus to present a strategic plan before starting to infect us.

No, this is not a joke.

The virus simply did what it was meant to do. No plan, no meeting, no permission requested or needed. Simple to infect in order to reproduce.

Et voilà!

Less than a year later, almost 40 million official infections and counting (a good strategy to spread), a million dead (not a good strategy to spread) and uncounted millions of asymptomatic spreaders (THAT is a textbook case of covert efficiency!)

What can we learn out of this?

We must act and adapt

All around us, nature is showing the way.  Darwin eloquently demonstrated that adaptation is the key to survival. Not resistance to change. Not Command& Control. There is no example in nature or in human history where Command & Control ultimately succeeded. Tyrants who imposed their rule have always been removed by revolution or a hungry and impatient heir! Any predator herd that took control of a territory eventually died after having eaten all the preys! There CAN be too much of a good thing and Nature has a quite abrupt and efficient way to remind us that this does not work. We live in an ecosystem. A very complex and unpredictable ecosystem. Too much pressure here and it will eventually rupture only to move in another direction until…the circle of change starts again.

I have been searching for the next step for a long while.

I have read and thought long and hard about this.

What could replace the Command & Control motto of the last century?

‘Act & adapt’ struck me on this beautiful Sunday, October 11, 2020, while reading Niels Pfleaging’s ‘Essays on Beta, Volume 1.’

From « Command & Control » to « Act and Adapt! »

From C&C to A&A.

Act & adapt.

I had to write about this.

Act & Adapt…

This rings a bell, lots of bells…

The whole world around us does just that. Why couldn’t we do the same?

Act & Adapt.

Interact, think, act and adapt.

A variation of the Deming circle PDCA( Plan do check act)

Act & Adapt.

We simply stopped doing it for a century…a mere blip on the universe clock.

We must act and adapt

Not Command & Control.

Act & Adapt.

Please share your thoughts about this. The concept will also adapt…

Photo by Photo by Suzanne D. Williams on Unsplash

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