November 27, 2009

Momentum Management vs Change Leadership

It is very easy to get into the relaxing position of staying the current course of your business. Continuing to manage your organizational affairs with the assumption that what got you here will get you where you need to get to. This is momentum management.

The reality is of course that the marketplace rarely lets us get away with this. It is always changing as a result of demand, competitive and economic factors. The most extreme case in point is the current economic downturn which is ravaging businesses that continue to do things the way they have always done them assuming that eventually they will pay off.

When things are going well (growing demand for your services, loyal customers and healthy market position) we can disguise certain inefficiencies but when things are not going well we stand raw naked in the marketplace completely exposed and will be punished for our inadequacies. I particularly like how Steve Gedeon from Ryerson Entrepreneur Institute Ted Rogers School of Business described this situation in a recent article in the National Post. He said ‘When the wind is blowing fast enough, even turkeys can fly. But as soon as that wind dies down, the turkeys start dropping.’

The point is that in the face of constant unpredictability you need to be driving change in your organization, you need to be a Change Leader.You need to be forcing organizational discontinuity to prevent the momentum management dilemma from happening. I appreciate that change, particularly being the forcing agent of it, is uncomfortable. But if you want to be identified with moving your team successfully into the future and avoiding the recessionary road kill you really have no choice.

Th essence of Change Leadership is to BE DiFFERENT. To initiate new creative ways to cause an overwhelming distinction between you and your competitors. To take responsibility for this change within you organization. To take risks. Yes, to make mistakes but to learn from them. To be the BE DiFFERENT champion to which all Momentum Managers would like to aspire to, but never will due to the inertia they possess and the momentum they wish to promulgate.

Cheers, Roy Osing

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Posted 11.27.09 at 05:18 am by Roy Osing | Read Comments (1) | Leave a Comment