Leg 8. From Itajaí to Newport (VIII). 101 Change.
Good night to all of you. It is 18:32 pm (CST) and here we are, again keep moving with the fantastic winds of the fleet. If you have followed the race, during the last week, all the teams have been advancing on average between 400 to 500 miles distance per 24 hours, which provides us a speed between 16 to 20 knots. The fleet is now flying. We are all crossing an area where the speed is above 30 kt. What to do when the wind speed (an external condition) forces us to sail rapidly too? What to do? How each of the skippers thinks and strategizes for it?
The position of the fleet 7 May 00:38 UTC
What is change?, What causes a change in our organizations? Is it an internal cause? or as with the wind speed, is it an external force?, Why do we change in our businesses? How do corporate leaders react towards change? Do a dichotomy of change and resistance to change happen?, Why do we force change? Would we force change before we are ready to change?….
Let´s get near Newport by reading the next slides, please. I have been preparing a 101 Change Information Fundamentals below:
If you wish to see it in PDF Format, click here please: Eliescalante Leg8 Corporate Strategy when change happens.
Corporate Leaders when change happens: It is clear to all of us that we must be prepared for changes (it doesn´t matter if those changes are internal or external to our organization). But are we ready to do wise changes?
Let´s not confuse the purpose of change. I can´t believe that we have inherited a culture of never being satisfied with what we have created or what we have mastered. The purpose of a change is to improve for the better. Better. Remember, better. Not worst. “Learning to lead ourselves requires for us to question some core assumptions too, about ourselves and the way things work”.
Let me share with you, the four things that Douglas Ready (an MIT Sloan of Management Lecturer) has found that all successful change leaders do really well:
1. Recognize embedded tensions and paradoxes
“The most common paradoxes leaders face when driving a transformation effort are:
- Revitalization vs. Normalization.
- Globalization vs. Simplification.
- Innovation vs. Regulation.
- Optimization vs. Rationalization.
- Digitization vs. Humanization.
Successful transformation leaders embrace these tensions even though they make the challenge more complex. There are no easy answers; however, the leader’s bedrock commitment to helping to reconcile these tensions is paramount”. It is not easy to reconcile tensions. But excellent transformational leaders are able to do it.
2. Hold everyone accountable
“The leadership of the change effort can’t end with the top team, the top 100 managers, or the top 1,000 managers. It has to be an all-hands-on-deck engagement. The change leader must signal that enterprise-wide transformation will be a collective effort, with accountability distributed throughout the whole organization”.
3. Invest in new organizational capabilities
“Change leaders must go beyond storytelling, motivation, and mobilization efforts―they need to provide resources so that the organization has what it needs to win in the new environment. This might include capital improvements, process improvements, and build new talent capabilities”.
4. Emphasize continuous learning
Professor Ready states that “It’s far easier to talk about revitalization and renewal than to actually do it. The companies that pull it off have transformation leaders that commit to a relentless learning process”.
This is all for today. Tomorrow is my last day of Leg 8 sailing. I hope to arrive at Newport over the next 36 hours. As far as my promises for this navigation journey, we are almost ready to finish Leg 8 last chapter. Next Leg 9 big theme is “Strategic Innovation and Digital Disruption”. Since Change is related to Innovation, we will expand more about it when in Newport. In advance, I wish to communicate that I will have to start to sail before Leg 9 start date, in order to cover everything on our way to Cardiff, Great Britain. As of Leg 9, I won’t travel alone on my boat but with Alejandro Guillermo Lozano Artolachipi, welcome on board!
Thank you.
Source References:
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/change-leader-change-thyself
https://www.strategy-business.com/article/rr00006?gko=643d0
https://hbr.org/2016/01/4-things-successful-change-leaders-do-well
Disclaimer: All the presentation slides shown on this blog are prepared by Eleonora Escalante MBA-MEng. Nevertheless, all the pictures or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.
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