I think a lot about change. Being excellent at change is critical to our ability to deliver value from IT investments and in a broader sense, it's critical to an organisation's ability to transition from a traditional organisation to a digital organisation. Everybody knows this and organisations spend millions managing change. There are thousands of books and articles written by very smart people on managing change (that's probably wrong, perhaps it's hundreds of thousands or millions). We've written methodologies to guide us and constructed degrees to educate ourselves and despite all this it is generally agreed change is hard. Actually let's be real, despite all this the vast majority of organisations suck at change.
I wonder if part of the reason we struggle with change is the nature of change itself. Change is about being in a different state than what you are now. Change as a concept is directionless. The key to change as a concept is "different". I don't like this place so let's move to somewhere that is not here, somewhere that is different.
Change is ever present. Indeed, there is overwhelming agreement that "the world" is changing faster now than it ever has and that to remain relevant in this ever changing world organisations need to change faster today than they ever have. Pundits argue that most organisations are not changing fast enough and will over time become irrelevant, or in the language of today, they will be disrupted.
While that may be true for some, most organisations do not lack for change, they change all the time. New people, new structures, new strategies, new products, markets and customers and a never ending stream of projects. They don't lack for change, what they lack is a coherent direction. When you have a lack of direction the cumulative effect of a series of changes is at best random. This is perhaps the source of our cynical use of the phrase "the more things change, the more they stay the same".
We don't need more change, what we need is more direction, what we need is progress. While change is directionless progress has direction, from where we are now to where we want to be. Progress is moving towards something better. This is very different to change, it is more in the realm of goals and purpose.
So I wonder if we would be much better at change if we focused on understanding and communicating progress and purpose rather than change?
If we were to improve our focus on progress how would this look different than what many organisations do today?
| Change | Progress |
| Usually starts with where we are now and how undesirable this is | Starts by defining where we want to be and how desirable this is |
Often directionless - the impetus for change is to move from an undesirable current state. | Directed - the impetus for change is to get to the goal or at least progress towards the goal |
| Often initiated by fear - moving away from | Driven by aspiration, a desire to improve, moving towards |
"Success" may not be clear as the desired outcome is often a double negative (eg don't be disrupted) | Success is clear, it is a goal achieved or progress towards the goal. |
| Can happen “to you” / be imposed* | Is a deliberate choice to move in that direction.* |
* Thanks to Ian McCall for this suggestion / input
This is far from complete but it's a start. I'd be interested in your views on the difference between change and progress and whether it has value. Consider:
Is the distinction of progress useful?
If we were to focus on progress rather than change would our "change" efforts be more or less successful?
What are some of the other differences between change and progress?
What would a progress management framework look like?
All feedback is welcome.