Management Vs. Transformation

Operation keeps the status quo, whereas transformation changes it.

People in the management are often promoted for doing a great job at stabilizing and optimizing operation (business functions).

In other words, they’re promoted for doing great at keeping the status quo.

Since transformation is about changing the status quo, management people are often not in a good position to work on transformation.

More often than not, they have neither the expertise nor the experience in changing the status quo. To them, the positive feedback loop of their careers is all about the expertise and experience of keeping it.

That’s not to say anyone else is in a better position to do it. Anyone could step in a better position when the incentives are there. Transformation is difficult not because there’re always bad actors, but because even good actors often fail badly.

If your organization’s power holders don’t have the courage to acknowledge that and utilize those failures to catalyze change, then your organization is merely going in circles.

How does your organization’s management break out of that status-quo-keeping loop?

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