ORLANDO — I've been thinking a lot about change lately. And transition.
But I suppose that's natural right after you get bought, and you spend the next several weeks (months?) figuring out not only the big picture stuff — such as management's long-term market strategy — but about a million smaller things, as well — such as navigating new expense reports.
Maybe that's why a piece I read on the flight out here stuck. It was about innovation — with a lowercase i. The writer's point, made within the context of the military, was that not every innovation had to be game-changing or transformative or disruptive (pick your corporate-speak). All of our lives, and organizations, are brimming with potential for incremental innovations that — rather than disrupt, necessarily — can at least force evolution forward. I'd be willing to bet a half dozen smaller, and certainly more manageable changes go a long way toward greasing the wheels toward an evolutionary organizational leap — if you'll pardon the mangled, mixed metaphor.
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How much time do you spend filling out said expense reports instead of tracking down prospects? How many hours a week do meetings rob you of sales calls? And how many people in your organization are involved in the simplest of decisions?
(Which makes me wonder, do individuals even get to make decisions anymore?)
Each level of bureaucracy in a company — admittedly necessary evils — slows you down. Makes you less nimble.
I'm thinking of an Entrepreneur tweet last week that read something like this: "When it comes to innovation, don't forget to involve the whole team."
I guess my retort would be, "Committees are where innovation goes to die."
Don't get me wrong, I understand and appreciate the value of teams, and even paperwork (to a point). But both should exist to serve the vision — and the customer. Not obstruct it. The system should serve the talent — whether its sales, marketing or whatever — not the other way around.
I bet if you took a look at your organization right now — or maybe even ask around — you could easily find a handful of things you could fix tomorrow.
After all, you're paying your employees to serve your clients — not your bureaucracy.
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