If not now, When?

Humans have a tendency to procrastinate. We do it for many reasons both real and imagined. You have done it since your high school days. You always waited until the last minute to complete that term paper or study for that big exam. I get it. I have done the same things myself.

Management tends to do the same thing. A problem arises and you develop the solution but the implementation goes to the bottom of the stack of all the other pending tasks you are confronted with. The placement is not based on its priorities but just the order of things that have hit your desk.

Here is the problem with this strategy. We are in a VUCA world, A world grounded in volatility, uncertainty, chaos and ambiguity. The author Ray Kurzweil tell us that the 21st century will represent 20,000 years of progress, So we need to change our priorities. If you were writing a contract to purchase a new home there is always a clause which says time is of the essence. The same is true in our VUC world. The time to resolve a problem is now not sometime int he future, if you get around to it.

If we have truly accepted the continuous process improvement mantra in our organizations, then time is of the essence to resolve the problems brought to our attention by the voice of our customers. The time to resolve their concerns is in the present not the future. We must take very clear strategic steps to mitigate their concerns. Strategies which recognize the need to act now not later. Remember Marshall Goldsmith's book title What got you here won't get you there. This means that if you are accustom to placing new tasks at the bottom of the to-do-lists and it represents a critical customer need, we need to change our strategies and do it now. Give this new problem the priority it deserves. To do so meets the need of your customers but also your organizational needs. To do will provide you with a competitive advantage int he marketplace as we show the world that we can be flexible, agile and strategic in meeting the needs of the entities we depend on for organizational survival.

About the author:?Daniel Bloom?SPHR SSBB?is a speaker, HR Consultant, author, and trainer for HR professionals looking to make the transformation from traditional HR to strategic HR. If you have questions about this topic or any other change management issue, send us an email at?[email protected]