Change - innovation: what is the difference?

As a consultant working with companies or as a coach working with individuals it is important to help clients understand how they move forward. Let us begin with an individual. One of today’s most discussed personal problems is obesity or overweight. There are many products on the market that promise you will loose weight before swim suit season, in two weeks or in a month. Most of these work on a few, but fail for the greater majority. Another group of weight loss writers speak about a lifestyle change. What they mean, but don't say because it is too loaded is that a lifestyle change means a change in how one uses his or her brain. The brain must be taught to think long-term instead of giving in to instant gratification. It means taking responsibility for ones self and making decisions about products. It means learning more about how the world works, spending more money on food and taking responsibility for ones self.

This is a huge "change". After commitment to the new direction there are many “innovations” that will help the individual. Information from informed people who talk about more than food, they also speak about exercise, good mental health, understanding ones own body and its peculiarities will suggest innovations in each area that can enforce the new lifestyle.

In many companies and organizations a commitment to providing customers with products and services that are sustainable and provide ones workers with fair salaries and working conditions represents a huge “change”. It is not a change because they think these goals are inherently wrong, but that they appear go against the maximization of profit. If one is mandated by law to earn a profit for the sake of shareholders, it is much harder to make the change. The two seem incompatible.

However, a number of companies are slowly trying. Of course, none of them will truly make the change until they are released from the need to maximize profit in order to pay stockholders or if they remain small and or private. The idea of local and small companies is taking hold in some areas. The large Wal-Mart’s have been denied building permits in some towns. The trend of the dying mom and pop businesses is slowly reversing itself. One of Sweden’s largest and most successful business is IKEA. It has gone international but is not listed on the stock exchange because it’s owner and founder has refused to go public.

Remaining small and private are “innovations” that will lead us to a very different business paradigm. For a long time big business (that is stockholder held international conglomerates) will continue to make profit, but in the long-run, they will fail. They already have divested themselves of large numbers of employees, an innovation that serves the dying paradigm. This is an interesting point. One can innovate within the existing world view with the idea of extending its past glories longer into the future or one can adapt the new worldview and innovate to give life to and assure success in the new one.

If you are consultant to a company do they want help extending the old world view, or do they want help with actualizing a new one? Which type of work do you prefer to do? Are they up for a large change to a new paradigm, or are they just interested in innovations which lengthen the status quo?

Why Strengthen Your Organizations Change Muscles?

Naturally you will have heard the following phrases in the news and read them in newspapers; climate change, energy crisis, peak oil, hybrid cars, sustainability and many more. These are signs of the beginnings of a huge paradigm shift. A paradigm is a world view, and our view of our relationship to nature is changing. You in companies and organizations will be affected in ways that were unthinkable only five years ago. We are in the beginning of a new S-curve or paradigm. The lowest point of the S-Curve marks the beginning of a new world view. The growth of the curve means that more individuals have begun to change and innovate.

Companies and organizations are adapting new ideas that will help us live more healthfully and prosperously on the planet earth. These changes are going to clash often with existing policy and systems and create new challenges. It is not just a matter of a little innovation; it is a matter of a myriad of innovations which must hang together if your organization wants to survive the shift. Your clients or colleagues will be continually asked to readjust, innovate and integrate new behaviors and new ways of thinking in order to keep up.

Technology is already spinning. Cheaper photovoltaics are being developed, advances in wind power equipment, hybrid cars and biofuels. Hydroelectric production and equipment is the next layer of change in the energy field. What might this mean to your organization? It means careful with investments because, just like computer’s, energy sources will both improve and change, making your expensive investments out of date. More local power stations to prevent brown and blackouts will be adapted by companies. Unlike computers, where basic knowledge can be used even though the programs and machines are upgraded, changing energy sources or equipment could involve totally different technologies and high costs.

Technology is not the only area impacted by the changing world view. Mass production and the idea of “Bigger is best” is being replaced by local and transparent. Individuals want to know that their food is fresh; grown without chemicals, pesticides and that the money they pay for it stays in the local community. People want to know that the companies they buy products from have control over every stage of product development. They want to know that no pollution occurred as a result of obtaining the raw materials, that the workforce was paid and treated properly and that their health and working conditions were satisfactory. Now many can get away with saying that they will try. As the S-Curve grows trying will not be good enough, it must happen. As a company, you will be increasingly expected to open your books and processes to consumers.

The building industry is awash with new, renewable products that do not pollute, are strong, cheaper to produce and use less wood. Window glass that reflects or draws in warmth, while not effecting light transfer, is now available. Wind and solar power solutions to home energy make homes increasingly less dependent on the mass energy networks of the “mass production” era.

The changes in values and thinking, plus new duties, routines and responsibilities increase in intensity until the S-Curve reaches the top. Climbing the S-Curve requires mussel. Companies are going to have to train their ability change and then stretch to meet new ways of doing things. Just like athletes, train and stretch and compete. Then it will be time for more new changes!