You may already be familiar with the famous business management book that gives advice about moving cheese. This is not that. But I don’t like when people move my cheese. Actually, the issue isn’t always people moving my cheese — I’m not generally married to any one location. It’s more the purposeless moving of my cheese that I find so aggravating.
I was recently talking to someone experiencing a lot of changes in their system, and they remarked that the only constant in life is change. I understand this and most cliches about the inevitability of change, and at different parts of my life I’ve even been the radical change leader.
Change is often necessary. But orchestrating change isn’t entirely about making the shift. You should also be ensuring it’s actually necessary. Otherwise, you’re changing and disrupting for the sake of change itself, not to make things better. Driving in Florida you see plenty of this, with drivers making it a constant guessing game of where they’ll go next, since signaling is such a rare sight.
In general, stable and predictable practices for business are the ideal. People should be able to enter their workspace and understand how to do their jobs and use their tools. A good leader will minimize disruptions to this system unless they’re absolutely necessary.
I’m currently on a task force for a project, and it’s like herding cats. It’s fascinating how we can all agree on a path, take a bathroom break, and when we come back, we’re all somehow traveling down totally different routes. Everyone gets pulled into the new because it’s interesting, and we end up spending even more time trying to find our way back to the good path that we were already on.
Strong leaders keep things consistent except when things must change, as indeed many things must at one time or another. A leader is a protector of systems, serving to keep them normal for as long as possible. When change does come your way, whether it’s clearly signaled or barreling out of nowhere at you like a Florida driver, a leader’s strength is reflected in how they manage their response.
If you’re lucky enough to get a clear signal, then it’s your responsibility to inform your organization of what’s coming and what it will likely mean for them. If it’s a crazy swerve out of nowhere, then all you can do is grab the wheel and hope your brakes are in good shape — that, too, is an important part of leadership.
Even when things are crazy, a leader can’t show how upset or unsettled they are, even when they’re really upset and unsettled. Instead, your job is to provide stability in the chaos. You can empathize with your people about the uncertainty and acknowledge how nuts things are, but you also need to assure them that there’s a path forward and you’re working to find it.
Yes, change is absolutely inevitable. It comes for all businesses and systems and communities. It’s how leaders manage through the process of change that makes them leaders and maintains as much stability as necessary as they proactively lead when change becomes necessary.