It was 1997 and I was in a position that was in a word said most like Chris Farley from Tommy Boy – AAAWWWEEESSSOOOMMMEEE. I was working for a company that had invested a substantial amount of money (I won’t say the exact amount but it was in the hundreds of millions of dollars) in a program that they had termed “Reinvention”. This program would later be replaced with Six Sigma, the program that was invented most in contemporary times by Dr. Mikel Harry (he credits Bill Smith, a veteran engineer at Motorola, as the “father of six sigma”) and sponsored by Bob Galvin who was the CEO at Motorola at the time.
Six Sigma would later go on to worldwide prominence after Jack Welch (who became CEO of General Electric in 1981) in 1995 fully adopted the concept of Six Sigma as a way of improving quality and creating a culture of constant change within GE.
At a conference at the Rotterdam School of Management on May 18, 2014, Jack used the headlining term to sum up his overall management and leadership philosophy “Change Before You Have To”. Since the day I read the transcript from that speech, I have always displayed the pull quote that was pulled into the publication I read. It has become a true calling to me and a way to live not only in business but in life in general. To put it in a different way, if you wait until you are forced to change, you are playing defense and not offense. As with most things in life, being on the offense is almost always better than being put on the defense.
To make this idea more concrete, here are some of the ways I have experience this concept of “change before you have to”; hopefully these may be of help in understanding this simply stated but very profound concept.
1. Beware of Signs:
If you remember the Men in Black scene with Will Smith, there is a “alien shooting” test where a small girl is carrying around Quantum Physics and Relativity Books. Click the image to see the video (sorry for a couple slight curse words)
If something seems out of place or “weird”, there is probably a reason for it. Paradoxically, the more “weird” something seems, the more likely there IS a reason for it. These “weird” signs can be either a caution flag or an opportunity. For example, many years back I was in a job that was primarily focused on Customer Accounting. One day I was presenting to the executive team of Customer Accounting, and the head of Cash Management was surprisingly in the audience. “Weird” I thought. A week later, the head of Cash Management invited me to lunch and offered me a different job which would give me new opportunities; not necessarily a promotion, just more experience. While I knew nothing about Cash Management, and I felt I was on a good career track within Customer Accounting, I took the position. The next year I was asked to be part of the new Leadership Development Program that would be a curriculum to groom future Sr. Management. Each department was given one slot and if I had stayed in Customer Accounting I would not have been offered a slot.
2. Don’t assume anything:
In a similar professional situation, I was in a VP position running a large organization of over 300 employees with very dynamic responsibilities. It was a position I excelled at and was highly regarded by my boss, his peers and my colleagues. At the time I was working at a remote location with our corporate headquarters in a different state. My boss communicated that he was extremely happy with what I was doing, yet he constantly was asking me to consider moving to the corporate headquarters to take on a more significant position. At the time, my wife had just started a new career in our city which did not allow us to move out of state. Additionally, I was somewhat irritated that my boss couldn’t figure out how to use my talent in the location I was in at a higher position. What was “weird” (see point 1 above) that I didn’t really catch on to was that he would ask me about moving incessantly. It got to a point where I became annoyed and took another position at a different company. A year later, the company closed the remote location and moved all of the functions back to the corporate headquarters. While I thought he was being overly pushy, my boss was ultimately attempting to save my me as an employee, and ultimately, my job.
3. Sharpen old or learn new skills:
Because of human behavioral changes, technology advancements, and diminishing needs, there are many responsibilities that will not be necessary in the future. Recognizing the professions that are advancing and which are declining is paramount to future success. I colleague of mine was in the print magazine sales business 15 years ago. He was at an executive level and was doing great. One day he asked me if I had contacts within my company within the digital marketing team. Surprised I asked him why he would move from his current position into a position with much different compensation and skill set. His response was simple “If I do this, I will have a job that gives me the skills I need to get back to my Executive level. If I don’t, I’m a dinosaur”. Needless to say, he took a digital role and not surprisingly is actually in a bigger role now than he was prior.
Even more specifically, think of us all as a species of animals. If we can’t adapt to changing environments, new threats and risks, we will become extinct. Not being able to change before they had to lies the fate of the DODO:
The famed “Dodo Bird” became flightless due to an abundance of ground based food sources (nuts, berries, roots, fallen fruits) and because there were no natural predators. The Dodo, no longer able or willing to fly, was extinguished by Dutch sailors and their domesticated animals.
