Change
Why do people do things? You know this! Think back to when you were a child and your favourite stories. There may have been a prince, princess or dragon involved! In these three characters we have everything we need to know about organisational change...
It is a question of motive...
Motive 1: Rescue the Princess
Much of the time we do things in anticipation of some future reward. I.e. we do things because we want to. In this situation we are moving towards something.
Motive 2: Kill the dragon
When we are not rescuing princesses we are probably killing dragons: avoiding some future unpleasantness. I.e. we do things because we need to. In this situation we are moving away from something.
Organisations behave in much the same way, and there is much talk of burning platforms and visions as a result (this is all business speak for dragons and princesses). However, there is something very important to consider about organisations when it comes to driving change, and that is their size and complexity. It is easy enough if one prince heads into the forest to kill one dragon. Organising a team of many thousands of princes to kill the same dragon, in the same forest, at the same time... that's tougher.