Change and Pain

Work
We consult with a lot of different organizations in a lot of different sectors. I’ve found one thing to be true across the board—change isn’t easy.
I’ve met with organizations that continue to spend needless millions on inefficient and wasteful communications processes but don’t address the problem because overcoming the change barrier is inconceivable to them. We’ve charged organizations significant sums of money to outsource functions that they are perfectly capable of delivering but unable to navigate changing the current-state process. I remember talking to a business leader whose mandate was to launch a new and innovative line of business within a well established organization. After a year of trying he decided that the only way he could succeed would be for the organization to spin his unit off and treat it as a start up. He left the organization.
When we go in to organizations and talk about eliminating waste, reducing costs, and delivering more meaningful messages to clients, heads nod. When it comes to trying to make it happen, eyes glaze over. The challenge is change.
John Kotter is the change guru; his work has helped many large organizations through the fundamentals of change. Clearly it has been done and can be done. It’s something we take very seriously.
In general organizations pay and incent their people not to change. While senior leadership works at directing and motivating change, most employees receive incentives for things like error-free execution, or effectively maintaining the status quo. With that as current state, walking into an organization and asking it to change the way it does things to deliver communications to its constituents is a cross functional, enormously overwhelming minefield that is beyond the comprehension of most individuals or even teams.
I remember hearing a news report about Canadian National Parks. They were planning to shut down some parks to campers because the cost of running the campsites was too expensive. The report went on to say that the camps were actually quite profitable but in the government accounting system revenue was contemplated separately from costs and it was costs that were being eliminated, regardless of the fact that those costs were actually quite profitable. Sometimes large organizations do unbelievable things because it’s a lot easier than taking on the hairy change monster.
The first key to winning this battle is knowing your enemy and understanding how to confront it. Go into these efforts with a change plan. Start small, build on successes, win support, and keep those fools camping.

Life
I did my last long training run of the season this week before my marathon in a week and a half. It felt a little harder this year.
For those of you contemplating running a marathon here’s what a Saturday morning looks like for a runner. Get up at 6:00 am, eat half a dry bagel and a banana, apply nipple guards (to prevent bleeding), spread Vaseline on every part of my body that rubs against another part (you do the math), get my running gear on, arrange my Gatorade and water drops strategically along my route, go to the washroom, have a drink of water and leave the house by 6:45 or so. From there it goes like this:
· The first 5 kms are about getting the residual aches and pains worked out
· Kms 5 – 20 are pure pleasure
· 20 – 25 is when I start feeling old, sore and tired
· 25 – 30 gets pretty uncomfortable all through the lower body
· 30 + is when you start thinking this is just plain dumb
After the run I eat everything in sight and feel generally tired and grumpy for the rest of the day.
I remember when running my first marathon in Columbus Ohio I ran beside a woman. At about mile 22 she was screaming at the top of her lungs, “This is the stupidest #$#%%^$#%$ thing I’ve ever done, I’m a total idiot!” When she stopped screaming I asked her how many marathons she’d run. She said, “Eight”. I didn't get it. And then I ran across the finish line and for a brief second the pain left, I forgot about all of the training and felt nothing but euphoria. SuddenlyI got it.
It hurts, sometimes it sucks, but when you’re hooked you’re hooked, and at the end of the journey the feeling of celebration is unlike anything else.