Page 238 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

THE WHY OF WORK

scored high, but decision protocols, systems, and measures
scored low. This team did not need to spend more time on
selling the change but did need to invest in how to make
it happen. In another case, leaders scored high on all the
change disciplines, but employees did not. In both cases,
change checklists helped leaders ensure that knowledge
about change was turned into action.

Principle 3: Make Change a Pattern, Not an Event. Ultimately, orga-
nizational resilience and learning in response to change is
not about a single incident but about creating a new pattern.
Learning cannot be something that just happens in a work-
shop, team meeting, or process review; it must become part
of the soul of the organization, something that occurs natu-
rally and continuously during all work activities. A pattern
implies that a new culture has been created, a new vision
institutionalized.
Corporate cultures that abound with resilience and learn-
ing inside generally focus on customers outside. Customers’
needs, values, options, and dreams always take us to the
cutting edge of innovation and improvement. When this
customer focus is embedded throughout the organization,
learning and resilience become systemic. Change is not an
idle hazing meant to distract employees, but an essential
link to keeping up with customer expectations and deliver-
ing value in the marketplace.

In Conclusion

Change happens.
How we respond to change matters. (See Table 8.2.)

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