Everyday business problems often prevent leaders from taking the time to think, plan, and act to make the kind of transformational changes that are needed in organizations. In The Heart of Change, John Kotter presents the case study “When Alligators Are on Your Tail” as an example of a leader who decided to deal with the crisis facing him and his organization before he began looking for ways to transform the organization. . Kotter quotes Nick Pearce as saying that “you have to focus on putting out the big fires and anything that can quickly restart those fires” before you can start working on a bigger transformation (Kotter, p. 25).
However, the pace of work and change are so rapid in today’s work environment that a leader runs the risk of using “fire fighting” as an excuse for not finding the time, energy, and focus to address the real issues that need to be addressed. resolve. change within an organization. The felt need to focus on fires, in fact, can derail any effort to implement change. “Many of today’s struggles with transformation are the result of leaders failing to pay attention to, or attend to, the cultural, behavioral, and mindset components of transformation in ways that have real impact” (Anderson and Anderson, p. 16).
Managers are often forced to deal with the business problems of the day. They feel their expertise and experience is needed to help “fight fires” in their area of expertise. However, leaders recognize that they must get into the business of building “platforms on fire” that help people and organizations realize the need for change, that compels them to get out of their comfort zone and begin to change ( Kotter, p. 27). This requires time, energy and focus. Using excuses that the organization has too many fires to put out only distracts from real attention and encourages employees to go back to the old way of doing things instead of focusing on the change ahead.
References:
Anderson D. and Anderson L. (2001). Beyond change management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.
Kotter, J.P. & Cohen, D.S. (2002). The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People
change their organizations. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
