386 to 486. 14.4k to 28.8k. Do those numbers ring a bell? Just 20 years ago, these were major technological upgrades.
I used to make extra money by helping people upgrade their computers’ hardware. I would manually take out motherboards, processor chips, video cards, and internal modems. I was doing this for technological laggards who were waiting to the last minute to upgrade their system before it became obsolete. Most of those coming to me for an upgrade shared the same sentiment “I’m not sure why I need this change, if what I have is still working.” But as anyone who has ever heard of Moore’s Law knows, “still working” means that you are just days away from being incompatible with future technology.
Today, rare are manual hardware updates. Now upgrades and updates are automatic and done in the background. The functionality of computers, phones, servers, and even home devices are being updated gradually and in ways that we barely notice. On our devices, change is a constant. Wired founder and futurist, Kevin Kelly describes it this way, “No matter how long you have been using a tool, endless upgrades make you a newbie…In this era of ‘becoming’ everyone becomes a newbie. Worse, we are will be newbies forever.” We are all what he calls “endless newbies.”
We are most certainly Endless Newbies as it relates to our technologies. But could we also be Endless Newbies in our professional lives? Consider that:
- The average worker is in his or her job for 4.4 years
- The average tenure of a CE0 is now under 9 years
- Half of the companies that were in the Fortune 500 in 2000 have fallen off (and ¼ of those no longer exist)
Anecdotally we see our clients changing corporate strategies, organizational structure, core values, and office configurations much more frequently than just a decade ago. And if you have ever tried to lead one of these changes you know how difficult it can be for an organization full of Endless Newbies to catch onto a change.
At Navalent, we spend our professional lives living alongside executives in organizations pursuing profound degrees of transformative change. Here are three things that we believe can help you through an “organizational upgrade.”
Get Commitment Early
If a change fails to develop its own internal source of energy it can be devastating. All too often, big initiatives fail to truly get off the ground and eventually die a slow, lingering death. If you are planning any kind of organizational change, you may want to consider enlisting others lower in the organization to help design that change. For example, when recently working on a three organization merger, we challenged the CEO to not do the organizational design work with his peers, but with a team of 12 credible leaders lower in the organization. Including those lower in the organization gave the work more objectivity, a clearer understanding of the problems that needed solving, and ultimately more support for the design. Implementation of the change went much more quickly and smoothly because so many elsewhere in the organization could be evangelists for it.
Don’t Freeze Up
On September 13th the new iOS10 was released for the iPhone. Millions woke up that morning to update their operating system. They were excited about new features and design nuances that would improve their experience of their phone. One small problem, the update froze their phones. Rather than the change in operating system improving their phone, it removed its function entirely. We have seen far too many leaders experience resistance to change in their organization and then freeze up. Rather than back peddling or going back on your proposed change, increase your focus. Return to common ground, mutual interest, and the higher goals from which the immediate conversation has departed. Demonstrate strong and consistent leadership that provides tangible, early evidence of true commitment to the change.
Make Sure Everyone Reads Up
One of the often overlooked but helpful tools for leading people through change, is documentation. One of the challenges with our ever-updating technologies is that we don’t always receive clear communication about how the changes made will impact us. In our organizations we have an opportunity to capture and communicate changes in a way that people can reference in their own time. For example when doing organizational design with our clients we create an “Owner’s Manual” that captures the detailed intent of the design, including structure, roles and responsibilities, governance, and the critical behaviors necessary to making it all come together. While much of the change must be lived to be understood, documentation can serve as a helpful reference point for people who feel lost amidst the rapid change.
Leading Endless Newbies is difficult work. And when leading in this difficult environment it is important to recognize that you too are an Endless Newbie. If we keep that in mind it will help us be humble, curious, and nimble as we lead our ever evolving organizations.