Day-to-day business problems often prevent leaders from taking the time to think, plan, and act to make the kind of transformational changes needed in organizations. In The Heart of Change, John Kotter presents the case study “When the Alligators Are Hot on You” as an example of a leader who decided to deal with the crisis facing him and his organization before beginning to look for ways to transform the organization. . Kotter quotes Nick Pearce as saying that “you have to focus on putting out big fires and anything that can quickly restart those fires” before you can start working on a bigger transformation (Kotter, p. 25).
However, the pace of work and change is so rapid in today’s work environment that a leader is at risk of using “putting out fires” as an excuse for not finding the time, energy, and focus to address the real issues that need to be addressed. resolve. change within an organization. The felt need to focus on fires can, in fact, derail any effort to implement change. “Many of today’s struggles with transformation are the result of leaders not paying attention to the cultural, behavioral, and mindset components of transformation or not attending to them in ways that have real impact” (Anderson & Anderson, p. 16).
Managers are often forced to deal with the business problems of the day. They feel their expertise and experience is needed to help “put out fires” in their area of expertise. However, leaders recognize that they must focus on the business of building “flaming platforms” that help people and organizations realize the need for change, that forces them to get out of their comfort zone and start changing ( Kotter, p 27). This requires time, energy and focus. Using excuses that the organization has too many fires to put out only distracts from real attention and encourages employees to go back to the old way of doing things instead of focusing on the change ahead.
References:
Anderson D. and Anderson L. (2001). Beyond change management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.
Kotter, JP and Cohen, D.S. (2002). The Heart of Change: Real Life Stories of How People
change their organizations. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
