Strategy of Change
November 4th, 2010 • Uncategorized
Usually change occurs when something is not going well. At least that’s what most of us think when we think of change. We associate it to a negative source/reason. Two articles in the Harvard Business Review have illustrated different kinds of change in an organization. The first kind I have encountered is the one is “motivated by misery”. The need for creation of a new structure, a new product or even a whole new company comes from the lack of an important factor. The first article uses Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook as an example. Because of his lack of friendship, Mark was driven to create an easy way to make friends everywhere. This idea could be applied in the organizations as a new strategy(class 9): “To motivate employees, managers could look for what’s missing in someone’s life and steer him or her toward activities that help them fill the void.” Dissatisfaction will lead to innovation. Changes will want to be made.( http://blogs.hbr.org/kanter/2010/11/mark-zuckerberg-and-misery-as.html)
The second article showed that even when nothing is going wrong, changes are needed. Changing the structure of the organization will make the company even better. A company may fear change, but “restructuring gets people to start forming new networks, making the organization as a whole more creative. It also disrupts all the routines in an organization that collectively stifle innovation and adaptability.”(http://hbr.org/2010/06/change-for-changes-sake/ar/1)
Rather it is from positive or negative reasons, change can increase the motivation and productivity of employees and result in a stronger company. So why not change? Take the risk, do what you need to do and what you want to do.