#Leadership : 4 Ways To Face The Challenge Of Disruptive #Change …It’s One of the Most Common Laments I Hear from #Executives . “No Sooner do I Stabilize One Part of my #Organization when some Unexpected Crisis or Challenge Upends Another.”
It’s one of the most common laments I hear from executives. “No sooner do I stabilize one part of my organization when some unexpected crisis or challenge upends another.”
The reality of constant, disruptive change as a way of life has many executives wringing their hands for ways to more than just cope, but thrive. Is there a way for leaders to capitalize on being established companies with the advantage of scale when smaller upstarts are perpetually nipping at their heels? How does a leader change today’s business while preparing for tomorrow?
We spoke with Scott Anthony, Managing Partner of the acclaimed firm Innosight and co-author of Dual Transformation: How to Reposition Today’s Business While Creating the Future. His research confirms that indeed, for leaders to thrive in today’s constantly disruptive way of life, they must be transforming today’s and tomorrow’s businesses. (You can also see a comprehensive video interview with Scott at our upcoming virtual summit Leading Through Turbulence.)
“ Disruption opens up windows of opportunity to create massive new markets ,” Scott explains in his book. However, in order to capitalize upon these new markets, “Executives must simultaneously re position their traditional core organization while leading a separate and focused team on a separate and distinct march up a new hill.” Scott calls this process a “dual transformation” — to thrive as an incumbent in a transforming landscape, you must lead existential change within your organization.
In our conversation with Scott, he proposed four interlocking strategies for successfully navigating dual transformation.
Spend more time at the periphery
The future is unkind to those who aren’t prepared for it. Fortunately, “you can experience tomorrow today if you look in the right places,” Scott says. Those places are at the edges of your industry — peripheral zones untouched by traditional business models.
Scott sits on the board of Mediacorp, the largest media conglomerate in Singapore. The company makes most of its money by producing television channels, which seems like a safe way to run a successful media company. Scott disagrees.
“I’ve got four young children and I know from watching the way they consume media that the core of Mediacorp’s model is dying,” says Scott. “My 10 year old daughter, Holly, never watches normal, linear television. Instead, you’re much more likely to see her watching YouTube videos from Dan TDM… Dan TDM narrates himself playing games of Minecraft. Now, I view this as borderline bizarre behavior…But Holly and her friends are transfixed. And Dan TDM has 20 million followers on YouTube and reasonably reliable research suggests he’s making a couple million British pounds a year.”
According to Scott, “this is what the future of media is. And the more you spend time with people like Holly or other people who are beginning to experiment with new behaviors, the more likely you are to see those early signals of change” in any competitive landscape.
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Change the way you approach problems
Conventional business wisdom believes problems can be solved through rigid protocol. First, gather data around the problem, then analyze it, then make a decision, then execute. If the results deviate from what you expected, “figure out why that deviation occurred and you stamp it out, because deviations are bad,” Scott says.
In an era in which change is the only constant, this approach no longer holds water. Contrary to conventional wisdom, deviations are actually windows into the truth. According to Scott, an unexpected outcome is a launch point for asking, “What can I learn from this? What can I do differently? ”
To make sense of such a complex and fluid universe of information, your thinking needs to remain flexible, curious, and critical.
A client I work with recently demonstrated this via a failed product launch. A digital product, customers would pay a fee to download it, and in the process become a subscriber. But as the opt-out’s rose, a closer look revealed people didn’t want the product at all, but wanted access to all of the other content and tools behind the pay wall that were free. His motto was, “If you can’t fix it, feature it.” Rather than offering steep discounts and promotions to push the product they thought customers wanted, they paid attention, and redefined the value proposition and pricing structure, capturing the value from what customers actually wanted.
Recognize the early warning signs of disruptive change
One of the challenges in preparing for disruptive change, Scott says, is that “the data only becomes conclusive [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][that disruption has actually occurred] when it’s too late to do anything about it.” Thankfully, when a fundamental shift is about to take place, there are usually a series of early warning signs. Scott highlighted the three he believes are most critical.
“Customer restlessness is often an early warning sign that change is about to come,” Scott says. Restless customers are “demonstrating that they’ve got different things that matter to them. There used to be things you’d give them about which they’d say, ‘this is awesome’; they [would] pay you big premiums for it. Now they’re starting to yawn.” Restlessness reveals a void demanding to be filled.
Second, “any time you see a competitor doing something different, you want to pay careful attention.” Scott says that, “When you first see a disruptive attacker, it’s very easy if you’re the market leader to look down your nose at it and say, ‘it’s inferior… it’s not doing all the great things we do.” While that may be true right now, you also may be witnessing the birth of a new approach that will change everything. Don’t sit back.
Finally, watch your financial statements. If “your revenue growth starts to slow and your profits start to increase,” the plates may be shifting underneath your feet. “When your top line slows and you fight back against it by cost cutting, getting out of low value segments, and so on, it is often a sign that the disease of disruption has taken root.”
Stay grounded while avoiding stagnation
You can only successfully navigate multiple existential changes if you are yourself a grounded person. Of course, being grounded will mean different things to different people. For Scott, it means maintaining intentional connections between his family and his work, while also allocating time to seek out new stimuli and immerse himself in new experiences.
Feedback is a powerful way to stay grounded. You should regularly solicit feedback from those you lead, customers, and friends willing to be honest with you. Too often, failure to spot disruption can be rooted in failures of self-awareness too. Staying ground in who you really are, and who you’re not, helps keep your eyes trained to notice realities you might otherwise prefer to ignore.
Disruption can be a gift. Pay attention to opportunities emerging around you, and capitalize on, rather than fall victim to it.
Ron Carucci is Managing Partner at Navalent and the author of eight books, including Rising to Power.@RonCarucci Download free ebook Leading Transformation in Organizations
Forbes.com | February 12, 2018 | ,
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