Groundhog Day

Do you sometime feel that your going through the same changes year on year? Are you presented with the next best thing and think to yourself, I've seen this before?

This is what happens when changes are not clearly planned and integrated. The changes slowly ebb away over time and before you know it, your back at the beginning, trying to work out what needs to change. Often the same thing as before, because it is the same thing that's still missing in the business. 

I'm all for encouraging cylic change, but it needs to be an upward spiral in 3 dimensions, moving the business forward and maximising its potential. If your change remains in 2-D, like the flat spiral it just disappears into zero point at the centre. The more change readiness you can engineer, the less likely that you will be "recycling" changes. Plan for the change ahead so that it becomes an integral part of the business and then there is no way back from it! It becomes the new starting point for the next change.

Planning for Change and Change Readiness are my themes for February and into March.