[Post by Chuck Krugh, October 11, 2024]
I think the title says it all – change is going to happen in all of our lives. How we deal with it demonstrates our adaptability and determines our character and our success. Our ability to deal with change has a lot to do with our mindset. Remember, I am not a doctor or a psychologist, but I have been schooled by many life experiences. I know one thing for sure: I have been in the middle of change my whole life!
This blog doesn’t require that we begin with a definition of change. Change is happening everywhere. It’s also something that we all deal with continuously in our lives – some of it is good, some is bad. Consider some of the personal changes we go through: maturing, dating and marriage or breakups and divorces, having children, moving to a new home or apartment, changes in our children as they grow, new jobs, health conditions, our own aging and the death of a loved one. So many changes! Beyond those big events are many, many smaller changes, like a new car or appliance, a new neighbor and so on.
I only bring up personal change to highlight the fact that we do deal with change frequently, and, frankly, most of us manage to navigate and adapt to the vast majority of these changes at home and in our personal lives. It’s just part of living.
Like our personal lives, change is going to happen in our work lives. Businesses have to change. In fact, the business that doesn’t change and adapt to meet the evolving needs of its customers will not stay in business.
There are countless examples of companies that didn’t adapt their business model to change with or meet their customer’s needs or expectations. Even long-standing, iconic companies have either fallen victim to an unwillingness to address or adapt to changes in the market or technology or closed because they failed to effectively manage their adaptation strategy. Here are a few examples that come to mind:
Name | Started | Name | Started | |
A&P Grocery Store | 1859 | Circuit City | 1949 | |
Sears | 1886 | DeLorean Motor Company | 1975 | |
Kodak | 1888 | Compaq Computers | 1982 | |
RadioShack | 1921 | Blockbuster Video | 1985 | |
Toys “R” Us | 1948 |
One of the biggest examples of failing to manage change that I have seen in my lifetime was in Pittsburgh as I grew up. I watched the steel industry dwindle from being the region’s major industry and employer to consisting of just a few plants. The rivers were lined with mills for a long time, but in the mid-to-late 1970s, that all began to change. There are a number of factors that contributed to the industry’s decline, but the results of these companies’ inability to adapt to those factors were devastating to the community.
It is always smart to look to our past and to learn from it so that we don’t repeat mistakes in the future. But being open to new technology, processes and people are some of the key changes that help us perform better. Automation, new scientific discoveries or a new idea from a teammate are all ways in which change can happen at a business and make things safer or more efficient. Oftentimes, something tried in the past may not have worked because the company wasn’t ready with the right people with the right knowledge or skills to implement it effectively. However, if you swap one variable, you can get a different result!
I would ask that you open your mind and become flexible to change here at work. Change isn’t necessarily bad, but it is definitely different. You don’t want to be the reason that positive change doesn’t happen. The risk of not changing is that we end up being like one of those companies I noted earlier – the ones that don’t exist anymore.
See you on the deckplates!
Safely Execute High-Quality Work
Chuck
President, General Dynamics Bath Iron Works
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