Send to KindleToo Much, Too Fast: How Leaders Should Pace Themselves When Implementing Change
You won’t be in the leadership seat very long before you find yourself wanting to make changes in the organization. That’s natural and good. Constant improvement is important.
Be careful though. Too much change too fast can be worse than no change at all. An organization is a living, breathing, and very complex organism. When properly nurtured and led, it can do amazing things and even absorb some abuse. But, as with any organism, there is a limit. When you make too many changes too fast, the organism is very likely to break down and cease to function efficiently.
The early 1990’s were a time of great change. I was in the Air Force at the time and we were experiencing much of that change as the world geo-political situation drastically and rapidly evolved. Air Force leadership took the opportunity to introduce even more change. Some of it was necessary and some of it made sense. Unfortunately, much of it was not necessary and didn’t make sense. The result was an organization bogged down under the weight of constant change, unable to fully implement one before the next came along.
What might have been good ideas were seen as less so because the organization was never fully able to implement them. Subsequent leaders realized we had tried to do too much too fast but it took years to undo the damage that had been done.
Don’t be afraid to make changes to improve the organization, even drastic changes if necessary. Just be sure to give the organization an opportunity to absorb and implement the change.
