“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” – W. Edwards Deming
Sometimes when I visit with business leaders & individuals and the conversation turns to change, I get the impression that people are content with survival. They talk about change like it’s some unattainable Valhalla, something for people who are inherently more creative or have more resources or are some kind of Steve Jobs-ian genius. They rationalize that what they have now is what they want and they aren’t interested in anything more, so therefore there’s no reason to change. Their current level of success is enough.
There’s a problem with that. Even if you’re completely satisfied with your current level of success, it’s not sustainable by continuing to do what you’re already doing. If your business is doing the exact the same things the exact same way today as you were 6 months ago (or less!), you’re already behind. That level of success you’re supposedly so happy with is crumbling with each day that goes by.
You can’t maintain that success by not changing. You have to change just to stay in place. You have to change just to cling desperately to whatever you have now. You have to change just to make sure everything you’ve worked for doesn’t slip away.
And I can’t speak for you, but to me, ‘cling desperately to whatever you have now’ doesn’t sound like what I’m looking for from my business. Don’t you want your business to grow? Don’t you want your business to be everything it can possibly be? Aren’t there things you would like to see improved?
The ability and willingness to adapt as the world evolves is the bare minimum requirement for survival. The ability and willingness to create change in advance of the world’s evolution is the bare minimum requirement for reaching your full potential, whether it be as a business or as an individual.
So you really have three choices. You can make change as the world requires it of you. As the world moves along, you can make the changes you have to make to survive. Or you can anticipate, move faster than you have to, create change that helps your business to become something more than it is today. Or you can be satisfied with where you are, do nothing, and eventually cease to exist.
I know what I where I want my business to go, and I understand what level of change it’s going to take to get there. Do you?
