Back to the future; Evolve or become obsolete

Once upon a time a wise and eccentric inventor named Professor Space had created a time-machine called the "Space Mind."?

And on a certain day Peter, leader of an innovative start up, found himself facing a painful decision. The company is struggling, delivery of products is lacking behind and there is a surge in customer complaints. Peter knows that for the company to thrive, they have to find new ways to improve and innovate.??

Feeling puzzled, Peter consults professor Space. He suggests Peter to use his “Space Mind” machine to go back in time and observe where it all went wrong. He only had one condition: ‘You have to take all employees with you.’

Desperate and intrigued at the same time, Peter and all his colleagues and peers embarked on this unique journey.

In a split second they were transported to a vibrant company, roughly 10 years ago. They witnessed how Tess, Transformation Lead, was working together with a promising mobility start-up.

They observed how the founders and employees collaborated with stakeholders, suppliers, and customers to understand their needs. They also observed how this small start-up had the courage to ask for help, to share knowledge and expanded their supporting network and of dealers.

By closely observing both the successes and mistakes of this mobility start-up, the team learned some valuable lessons. They quickly realised that open communication, involving local communities, share technology, and investing in education are vital components for evolving and being able to adapt to change.

With newfound inspiration, the team returned to the present. Armed with insights from the past, they started to work on relaunching their business.

Evolve or become obsolete

The above story is not just an analogy. Maybe you guessed that it is loosely based on a Dutch company who produced a very popular electric bike, but had to file for bankruptcy despite its popularity.?

Have you ever experienced these kinds of situations or know similar stories? And, did they fail? Yes, of course I would almost say. But failures are not bad. They only become bad, if you do not learn from them.

As a leader you know that you have to take risks and that this also means that you might fail. These risks and failures are there to make innovation and learning possible. And that’s the whole point. To learn from them, you first have to allow failures to happen, and then take the most important step, act on them.

Research shows that nearly 40% of CEO’s don’t think their companies will be economically viable, a decade from now if they continue on their current path. The pattern is consistent across a range of economic sectors, including Technology (41%), Telecommunications (46%), Health-care (42%) and Manufacturing (43%).

These same group of CEO’s state that only 23% of the company’s leaders are able to make strategic decisions for their function or division without consulting their CEO.

It’s therefore no wonder that driving current operating performance, consumes the biggest part of their time. They mentioned, that if they could redesign their schedules, they would spend more time evolving the business and its strategy to meet future demands.

Build a resilient strategy

Being able to make the turn towards a balanced and sustainable agenda, while facing today’s tensions, and respond adequately to disruptive threads, requires a whole new leadership system. Leadership that, for instance, makes adapting to change and sustainable growth accessible for everyone in the organisation.?

Do you feel the tickling heat of facing today’s tensions of guiding your organisation to the future in a resilient way? Then find 5 ways of where you can focus on:

1.?????Stop firefighting?

Being aware that the challenges of the future are visible, and impacting lives and businesses already today, should make you to stop firefighting or worse, feed ostrich politics. Get rid of the hidden agendas and short-term, mediocre fixes. Reflect and learn from the past, to properly prepare for a sustainable marathon.?

2.?????Understand your system

Whether you are the CEO, CHRO, or any other leader of a department or team, your department or team is not the most important one. To lead your business, you have to understand the larger business system you are part of, and what impact the things that you are doing, have on the rest of the organisation and beyond.

3.?????Know your purpose

Have the big picture in mind and make sure that everyone in your organisation understands the why, the foundation of your organisation. This will help you to focus on the topics that matter and align the entire organisation. This inclusive leadership system gives guidance to everyone in the organisation and provides the information to make strategic decisions on their own.

4.?????Don’t go alone

Leading a start-up or transforming your organisation, is not something you can do on your own. So don’t be stubborn and ask for help. No one is omniscient and no one has infinite expertise to do everything on your own, or with a small group of directors. So, start involving customers, employees, suppliers, expert consultants and stakeholders alike.

5.?????Commit and act

This is probably the hardest part of leading. The moment you have your purpose, values and principles clear, or that you have decided to start that journey towards a purpose-driven company, mere commitment is not enough. The most important step is to act on it and role model the behaviour you want to see within your future company.

It’s never too late to make a turn, even if you think your company is already in the danger zone of becoming obsolete.??

Having a great product is not the only prerequisite for moving from Survival to Thrive mode. Becoming adaptive to change and leading such a transformation from purpose, has everything to do with the mindset, behaviours, skills and capabilities of your entire system.?

Often this doesn’t mean doing more. Mostly it means letting go and doing things in a different, more effective way.

Now it’s your turn

If you could go back to the past. What would you do different in the future?

Start the turn today

Are you ready to act and make a difference? Then join our FREE webinar ; The rise of the transformational leader and learn to drive your own people-centric transformation.

Register here today!

Additionally, if you have questions leave a comment or feel free to get in touch for a call to discuss how I can further help you on this journey.?

Thanks for reading this blog and looking forward to your response!

If you think this is of value for others, then please share it with your network. I greatly appreciate that.

Have a wonderful day!

Alize

Passionated about living by purpose. Entrepreneur and founder of?Twinxter ?and the?TwinxterAcademy , Author of?Purpose Driven People , creating business agility & sustainable growth, Co-author of Agile People Principles, Transformational Leadership & Emergence, Keynote Speaker

It's my purpose to spark the Human X-factor and create purpose driven spaces where everybody is able to grow.

How? Put people & purpose at the heart of your organisation and drive your people-centric transformation.