The Pace of Change
I received some feedback the other day from a retained recruiter on my candidacy for a VP Engineering role at a company that wanted to change, but not too fast. The CEO and CFO felt that because of my military background, I might be too aggressive with the pace of the changes. Most organizations that fail to change, fail because not everyone is on board. In business, this is usually middle management. I’d be more worried about hiring a passive aggressive manager then one that is mistakenly perceived to be too aggressive because of their military training. I’ll post later about misconceptions of the military.
The pace of change is really about the process of making a decision and building consensus. It is not about the schedule for executing the change plan. To paraphrase Yoda, change or change not…there is no try, no fast or slow. Decisions are made or not. Decisions are accepted by others or not. The pace of change is fast or slow depending on how long the CEO allows for everyone to accept his decision, because the CEO enforces accountability for meeting the milestones in the change plan. Or he does not.