I read some headlines recently that made me do a double-take:
"Deloitte tells 20,000 employees they can work from home permanently."
"Goldman Sachs calls working from home an aberration" and expects workers back on the subway and in the office.
How many business books are full of companies who "missed the turn" in their day, when their industry, consumers or technology shifted but they didn’t? Most were dominant players in excellent positions to take advantage of those changes, too. And yet, for some reason –hubris, tradition, or plain old inflexibility - their leaders all thought the same thing:
"That will never stick around!"
Remember Kodak’s famous moment when it developed – and then shelved - the digital camera? Today it is hardly even mentioned in the photography world. How about Bill Gates thinking we'd never need more than 1MB of RAM? Xerox developing personal computer software then putting it on a shelf. Blockbuster missed streaming. Borders bookstores saying the Kindle would never last. And countless businesses who said the fax was a fad, the internet was silly, and uploading photos and videos was too hard.
As one executive told me from a class in 1994 -
"Nobody is ever going to sell their home on the internet!"
People that grow never say things like "No way," or "That’s a fad," or "Not gonna last." They set aside their natural desire for "things to stay the same" – especially if they’re at the top of their game. Instead, growing people embrace change: they become masters of it. How ironic, then, after millions of people worldwide adapted to new conditions, adopted new behaviors, and - in many cases - outperformed their previous way of doing things during the pandemic, some leaders today consider that progress an "aberration."
Of course, some things take time:
It took decades to get a television in every home.
It took 16 years to go from a few million cell phone users to 8 Billion.
It took Facebook 10 years to capture 30% of the world's users.
But not always. In just a few months in 2020:
Cincinnati Children's Hospital went from 2000 telehealth calls a year to 5000 *weekly*
In mere weeks, millions of households began having clothing, groceries and even medicine delivered and 58% say they intend to continue doing so after the crisis
The housing industry sold more homes during the pandemic than any year since 2006, despite people's traditional ability to "touch and see the home in person."
It reminds me of something my mentor told me many years ago:
"Conditions don't determine your future," he said. "But how we handle the change in conditions does."
"So how do I handle the change?" I asked.
"Use the best system designed to handle change; one that turns change into an ally. That turns uncertainty into calculated risks and locates opportunities amidst adversity," he replied. "That's your competitive advantage. To watch, learn, adapt and remain open to possibility - while others push back, retreat, or resist.
And that massive engine of change?
There’s only one thing that can decide whether the changes are a fresh beginning or an aberration telling you to keep doing things the old way:
"You!"
#alwaysinspiring