Leadership seems to be addicted to change. Like an itch they just have to scratch. There just needs to be enough push from the market, or a decrease in time to market stats, to make leadership default to a new change initiative. 

Sometimes change is even standardized, with the self imposed yearly loop of strategic/tactical goals that sets off new objectives, imperatives, targets and its accompanying abbreviations that always feel slightly forced. 

Maybe the change initiatives could be seen as an organisational dad joke but with real consequences.

Because it does have real consequences. Real consequences in the sense that people on the workfloor need to get on board with a new change, start taking on new roles and/or activities, or - in some cases - get to process that they have been deemed redundant.

But it rarely affects the instigator of change though. Leadership tends to stay out of the line of fire when a change goes sour. Or, like an investor, they have covered their risk with a stiff severance payment.

Maybe it is time to rethink the necessity of change. Or, to see change as a broader concept, meaning: there are degrees of change. Change ranges from a small pivot to what you were doing to a full transformation of your organisation. 

And that is not to say that every leadership team is continuously looking for change. I’ve been part of executive team meetings where significant financial losses were shrugged off as a recurring yearly theme. “It will turn around next quarter, just like it did last year”.

How do you know what change, if any, you need to make? Any organisation exists because it caters to a need. You have clients who are willing to pay you for a product or service. And if that client need changes, which happens all the time, you might want to consider changes to adapt to those new needs.

However, in my experience, we are rarely well informed of our clients needs and desires. Especially when it concerns bigger organisations, we tend to lose sight of our clients. With every extra layer between the client and the value they are seeking, every account manager, client service something, etc., the insights become diluted.

The first step to discovering your need for change comes from client research. Or rather, client contact. When was the last time you've actually spoken to a client, or experienced the way they experience your product or service? I guarantee that you will gain invaluable insights and views on what they actually want or expect from your product/service.

Second, assess where you are at right now and what change would best fit your organisation. If you were to change something, how would you see its benefits and impact. If you gain immediate revenue but lose it in the costs of the change, what would be the smartest thing to do?

And finally, it always amazes me that after a change, whether it is big or small, no one ever seems to look back on their change investment and assesses the success level of that change. How about instead of lunging head first into your next change, reflect on the outcomes of the previous change. Are your employees happy in their new roles? Did the client experience any level of improvement? Did your investment into change render any returns? 

Because for all this hyper focus on change, your employees will probably just hear another change announcement, add another entry to the survival list of organisational changes, and keep doing exactly what they had been doing all along. 

Or, in the words of a senior consultant I interviewed recently on change:

In that way, we are all guilty of swinging that hammer: to the leader a change is always the solution, to the employee proceeding as usual is how we cope with that change request.