I had to laugh out loud when I saw the picture cross my screen. It was one of those motivational posters with dolphins on it and had a heading that said "Sea, Change is Easy." Later that day I had another laugh seeing an ad for a speech on "Coaching for Change."
This hollow stuff is fine for the aspirational crowd who confuse talking and wishing with thinking and acting. Here is my worry - some entrepreneurs might actually believe this stuff and derail a company that could have grown and exited.
Don't just take my word for it. Listen to Laura Zander, CEO of Jimmy Beans Wool, who was growing fast and furious as a multi-million dollar yarn internet phenomenon. She started attending business conferences where management consultants, coaches and motivational speakers told her that she needed to be a 100 million dollar business. She said O.K. and did exactly what they said and what followed was her fast growth became a slow crawl.
She called me and I was struck by her sheer honesty. She said "we made a bunch of changes and none of it is working. I screwed up."
When I flew to meet her at their distribution center in Reno NV, I quickly saw that Laura had been sold change as sugar instead of what change is - old times vs new times. Just like sugar builds up toxins in the human body, these sweet nothings like “change is easy” build up weaknesses in companies and are toxic to a great culture like the culture at Jimmy Beans Wool.
This sugar change is so different than the reality of what it takes to change fast and that is out with the old and in with the new. Yes, it is not that sweet but it is that simple for CEOs like Laura who want to lead change in an organization that has had a great deal of success.
Let's get down to specifics. After all the hooting and hollering in trying to decide what to do, change does not happen until the CEO of the organization puts their foot down and says clearly - "this is the new direction we are going in and I need you to come along." Yes, we will need your ideas and insights on our new future but we don't need your opinions on the past. We're going. If you can't come with us, we will offer you a month's salary to walk out the door now. If you stay with us, you are with us through thick and thin."
In other words, we are not going to be talking, coaching or thinking about change next week.
Oh, by the way, this is the easy part. The old timers will not walk out the door. What will they do? For what they think is right, they stay and fight like termites on a piece of wood. Yes, I know not as pretty a picture as dolphins on a poster but a lot more accurate just how hard change is especially when you want to change what has been successful in the past.
Also, the old times can bring some heat on this change agent CEO because they have some great arguments like “how can you change what has made us successful in the past and what made us different?” Or what about this one – “You are destroying our heritage and legacy”.
Let's face it, this pulls at the heart strings of many entrepreneurs, and they back off. Change flames out or they make an easy change like coming up with a new mission statement an at off-site leadership retreat.
Entrepreneurs, if you want to know, grow and exit a business, you have to take the heat, the sabotage, the lies, and create a change urgency that looks like this. You are selling, moving, and demanding change all in one swoop 24x7. They can't ever see you let up, and your every move has to be pushing the new times.
If we have to use a sea mammal as the creature of change, we would better off to use the hammerhead shark than a school of dolphins jumping through water sprays. I know sharks get a bad rap on attacks but that is not who they really are and certainly not how they resemble real change. They are creatures of constant movement that surges them ahead to survive - a great analogy for a change agent CEO who survives and ultimately thrives over the old times. Think of a major change CEO like "neutron (bomb)" Jack Welch or an entrepreneur who just pushed their company to the next level, and you will usually find both a petulant and elegant human force that overcame old times to bring in the new times.
It is not sugar and spice with a lot of compromise, and maybe that is why only five companies out of every 50 thousand start-ups will know, grow and successfully exit in cash in a five year period. In that five year period, companies will have to jump through at least three major change hoops; after successful start-up, after hyper growth and after human scale where you can add people and profits at the same time.
Sometimes in this change game the hammerheads win and sometimes the termites win - but dolphins never do.
