We Have Always Done It That Way

This posting deserves the one word title “Change”.

In the frame of “always done it that way” I would define “change” this way…

A painfully slow, political, arduous, tiring, grueling, time consuming, onerous process that must involve every possible stakeholder imaginable before creating a plan to implement the change.

Why do I mock the collaborative nature of change within our community? Because all too often we ask too many people to provide input into the changes that need to be made.

Let’s talk examples here – and let’s see if this hits home for any other readers.

ABC association is getting ready to recreate the Board of Directors so they move from a tactical board to a more strategic one. The Board determines that membership feedback is important so it casts a painfully wide net and gets a pretty predictable response. Those who can’t handle change complain very loudly. Those who are in strong support of the change state their support and a wide majority of members don’t understand the inner workings of the organization well enough to care. So after 6, 8, 10 or more months of soliciting feedback, the new structure is approved.

This process seems to happen everywhere. But why do many organizations put so much time, energy and effort into the loud minority of the naysayers?

If change is going to (1) positively impact the bottom line – and you can prove that, (2) make the job functions of volunteers easier, (3) provide higher value to the membership – then I say ask forgiveness and spend much less time on asking for permission. I realize this is easier said than done with bylaw changes, etc. But I think we spend way too much time in the approval process of change than we do actually implementing it.

Tags: Leadership, We've Always Done It That Way // 1 Comment »