I was watching the news about a company that had failed the other day. Nothing new there. A lot of companies have gone down during this recession. What was interesting was that the business reporter covering this demise pointed out that that the company had taken drastic measures to survive and made numerous changes, but it was too late.
That got me to thinking. Why is change only necessary when things go south? You know the drill, executives gather round when something goes wrong, or is about to go wrong and only then do changes get shoehorned into a an environment where change was not part of the culture. Thus, the change management often fails.
That is the problem. Change management, for many companies, isn’t really part of the daily work objective, especially in places where it’s not emphasized. You’ve heard the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? Or, “Don’t reinvent the wheel?” Is that the perfect environment for being nimble, pro-active and committed to constant improvement? I don’t think so.
I have no statistics to back up my claim, but if I were betting, I’m thinking that companies that promote a continuous improvement culture are far more equipped to survive economic down times and thrive when the economy is good.
It’s all well and good to react to the recession by saying we have to cut costs or streamline and make our business more efficient, but then why does it take a recession to realize that those are the things that every company should strive for, no matter the economic conditions.
Bottom line: To use a medical analogy, making changes once you’ve been injured may well help you to recover, but isn’t it smarter to prevent the injury by staying fit and in good condition? That’s what essentially a continuous improvement culture does. It keeps your company fit and ready to accommodate the changes necessary to not only survive the blows, but stay ahead of your competition when the game is afoot.
