Change Inspiration

This week I took part in a jury at a business school to assess the overall grade of participants’ “final projects”. As ever, the quality varied: from excellent to poor with a lot in between! For a business plan, besides the basics of market research and analysis, an attractive customer-offer, innovation, robust financing etc., what made a plan really “excellent” was change “leadership” rather than change “management.” Instead of just talking about how to manage a project with the focus on shareholder return, the participants delivering “excellent” plans would strike something a bit bigger: the idea of changing a paradigm, changing the way people do things, or even introducing something completely new to the world…  To achieve that, you have to have “inspiration” to change and it is not that easy to come by. So I thought to share some insights that I found in “Change Management and Reorganization” (March 2014, ICAEW)…

Here’s some thoughts from leaders to inspire change along with further considerations (“et alors”)

Change Inspiration

As a leader, when you are looking for that extra “boost” to lead a change, any of the following insights might be of interest:

A Einstein, Physicist

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.

W Churchill, Politician

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

E Land, Polaroid Co-Founder

It’s not that we need new ideas, but we need to stop having old ideas.

GB Shaw, Author

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

CS Lewis, Author

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

Et alors

One could say that the only constant is change itself! And to survive or even flourish in a world that is constantly changing, you have to not only change, but change quicker than the others! Not much more to say on the subject!