You're navigating organizational transition. How can you balance innovation with stability?

One of the best pieces of advice I've received is from the CEO of a large company. He took over a struggling organization and immediately brought his key leaders to a two-day "retreat." As the team gathered, the room fell silent. The newly appointed CEO, breaking the quiet, asked a simple question, "So, what's our plan?" This was met with a moment of uncertainty. A senior leader asked, "Don't you have a strategy?" The CEO's response was a lesson in humility, "Why would I? I've just arrived!" The reality is that he did have a sense of the issues and potential strategies they could employ, but he took the time to listen and learn, and in doing so, he was able to get each to invest in the change that was needed to succeed.

L’adaptation au changement est essentielle pour naviguer entre innovation et stabilité. Comme le dit Satya Nadella, CEO de Microsoft, "L'innovation est le moteur du changement, mais la stabilité est ce qui permet de gérer ce changement efficacement." Comprenez que le changement est nécessaire à la croissance. Accueillez-le comme une chance d’amélioration. Ensuite faites de la gestion du changement une valeur fondamentale de votre culture. Cela favorise la résilience de votre équipe face aux incertitudes de l’innovation. Reid Hoffman, cofondateur de LinkedIn, affirme : "La capacité à s’adapter au changement est la marque des entreprises qui prospèrent. Enfin reconnaissez les craintes et la résistance associées aux nouvelles initiatives.

Fear is normal and often accompanies change, yet many leaders brush past these feelings within their teams. In fact, the fear and anxiety are often labeled as “inflexibility” or “being negative”. In order to get your team’s buy in, you have to first address their concerns. Without holding space for their worries, they’ll likely push back on your plans. Ask them the following questions: -Is there a worst case scenario that you’re anticipating and what is it? -What would ease your worries about this change? -What supports can I provide along the way?

Focus on maintaining core operations while gradually introducing new ideas. I find that adopting changes incrementally rather than drastically is crucial. For instance, piloting new initiatives with small groups before scaling them up. Ensure open communication with your team about the changes and their benefits. This approach helps balance innovation with stability during organizational transitions.

La planification stratégique est le GPS de votre transition de carrière. Voici comment transformer votre plan en succès tangible : Définissez où vous voulez aller avec des objectifs précis et atteignables. La clarté est essentielle. Comme le dit Brian Tracy, expert en développement personnel, "Les objectifs clairs sont la première étape pour transformer l’invisible en visible." Ensuite, Découpez ces grands objectifs en étapes plus petites et gérables. Que ce soit obtenir une certification ou acquérir une nouvelle compétence, chaque petite victoire vous rapproche du but. Selon James Clear, auteur de Atomic Habits, "Les petites habitudes font les grands résultats." Votre capacité à anticiper les obstacles et à réagir en urgence est cruciale.

Your team needs to feel connected to the mission and vision driving the change. Being looped into the end goal helps people to understand the steps along the way. For example, if you’re introducing a new software that will help to streamline processes, communicate the end goal as saving time and simplifying things for your team. They might be hesitant to try a new software because there is usually a sharp learning curve, but if it makes their job easier, they will likely buy in quicker.

Throughout my career, I have shunned the word "vision" or "visionary." Over time, however, I have come to understand that a strategy, no matter how sound, is far less likely to be executed without the ability for people to "see." So, my interpretation of "vision" has evolved to the ability to paint a picture of success and the path to get there in a way that engages key stakeholders and gains critical buy-in.

L’agilité est la clé pour jongler entre innovation et stabilité. Comme le dit Jeff Gothelf, expert en gestion agile, "L’agilité n’est pas une méthode, mais une manière de penser." Elle vous permet de vous adapter aux évolutions du marché tout en maintenant la stabilité. Encouragez une approche flexible où l’équipe peut ajuster ses stratégies rapidement. Selon Mary Barra, CEO de General Motors, "Les entreprises agiles sont celles qui peuvent s’adapter au changement tout en restant fidèles à leurs valeurs fondamentales.". Créez des équipes interfonctionnelles pour améliorer la réactivité et la créativité qui permettra de résoudre les problèmes de manière plus complète. Enfin permettez à votre équipe de prendre des décisions au niveau local.

Agile organizations empower teams to make decisions without having to constantly check in with higher level leaders. Many leaders create barriers by micromanaging and requiring multiple layers of approval before allowing a plan to move forward. This level of bureaucracy diminishes innovation and reduces agility. Instead, encourage middle managers to try new approaches. Give employees the opportunity to express new ideas without fear of judgment. Show your teams that you value their creativity and develop their leadership skills. This will set them and your organization up for success.

A large city invested in a ten-year project to build a major tunnel to allow for shorter travel times. Two problems. Yes, the project took several more years and cost far more than expected. However, the more concerning issue - the tunnel was built using current traffic patterns and didn't fully anticipate changes ten, fifteen, or twenty years out. One also doesn't think of "agility" when building a fixed tunnel. The lesson, when it comes to organizational changes? Plan for the unexpected. Evaluate different potential outcomes and ensure that your plan is agile enough to account for these. Build in contingencies. And build your plan so that it doesn't have "tunnel vision" but rather can account for a broader solution.

If I don't know what is going on, I don't trust if or what is happening, so I believe there isn't one, and I may come up with my own. Many feel this way at various organizational levels, and they then demand or expect full transparency so that they can "evaluate" your plans. You must foster trust by establishing a balance between sharing every detail of a developing plan and keeping quiet at all costs. Hold open forums, allow for feedback, give periodic updates. Set the expectation of when those impacted will hear updates and live by that.

Managing risks and creating agility go hand in hand. I will give you an example. You are designing a new store, a prototype. If you build it so that making changes is time-consuming and expensive as you better understand the impact of what you have built, you are not agile, and you haven't allowed for managing risks. If instead, you build the prototype in a way that allows you to learn more about customer behavior and patterns and make quick changes, you've created a more agile build, and you are managing the risk that your initial expectations don't work. Think of organizational changes in the same way. Build to be agile, so when you do encounter an unexpected challenge, you are able to evolve more rapidly.