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Strengthen Your Organization with CREATIVE DESTRUCTION
by Grace McGartland
As seen in Words of Mouth!Sayer International is a traditional management environment staffed by
people who were trained to think critically; this thinking style has led to suspicion
about anything new or unproven. Meanwhile, the company puts forth internal messages about
growth, change, and paradigm shift—but employees know that acting on these messages
could be dangerous. Campbell Putnam, Product Manager for New Business Development, is
exhausted by this environment. As the team leader for "Project Paradigm,"
he’s been charged with reengineering a comprehensive database management system for
the telecommuting application. His team is full of smart and creative people, but whenever
they meet to review the project, their fear of change is palpable. As a result, the group
has yet to develop any breakthrough ideas that will create the transformation mandated
from above. Sound familiar? This is a situation with which many people in business can
identify.
Creative Destruction—the
systematic "letting go" of the familiar while simultaneously creating something
new—is a crucial tool that organizations need to embrace if they are to thrive in a
changing world. It is an ongoing process that arises from the integration of new ideas and
new ways of working. As these components are woven into the current corporate structure,
the old gives way to something completely new.
For Creative Destruction to work in an organizational
environment, people need to understand that:
- Expectation is the enemy: Expectation
creates a scenario of how things "should" be, which limits our imaginations and
keeps us locked into old routines. What expectations lock your imagination?
- Routine is a thinking trap:
While routine offers security, when we focus on one way of doing things, we are caught in
a myopic perspective. What routines should you consider changing?
- Expanding perspective means being consciously, deliberately
prepared to welcome and embrace change, from
the inside out. This is the first step in Creative Destruction, and the hardest—and
it requires brutal honesty with oneself. Are you ready?
* Sayer International is a fictitious company, and
Campbell Putnam is a fictitious person.
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