| Alvin Toeffler said it best in Future Shock (1970) when | | | | Effective leaders need to anticipate their markets and |
| he noted that we were entering a period of | | | | act with flexibility, versatility, and innovative approaches. |
| acceleration and diversity: More and more things | | | | The Skill of Listening |
| happening, faster and faster. That has certainly | | | | Thus, change management requires one trait of |
| become the case in this era of high-tech change. | | | | today's leaders more than ever before: The ability to |
| Consider just one example - the delivery and playing | | | | listen. Effective leaders develop employees who can |
| of music. From phonographs to tape recorders, to | | | | serve as their organizations' eyes and ears in every |
| digital recorders, to CDs, MP3s, to the various "I" | | | | respect. Heeding the railroad sign concept of years |
| applications, change has come more and more rapidly. | | | | ago, such employees "Stop, Look, and Listen." They |
| Today's innovation: Tomorrow's Obsolescence | | | | make, not just take the time to see and hear |
| The same applies in the delivery and use of business | | | | everything that is happening around them that might |
| software and hardware applications: Today's | | | | directly, or even remotely, affect their businesses. And |
| innovation quickly becomes tomorrow's obsolescence. | | | | their leaders create formal and informal ways for |
| In fact, it can be said that the only constant in today's | | | | them to communicate their "intelligence" immediately. |
| society is change. With such change comes an | | | | Such leaders apply the skills of critical, analytical, and |
| increasing need for leaders to recognize that strategic | | | | logical listening - fully and supportively. They have |
| planning, too, has changed. While it is true that all | | | | learned that the days of "don't rock the boat" and |
| organizations need plans and timetables to drive their | | | | "don't make waves" are long gone and that rocking |
| goals and objectives, it is also true that organizations | | | | the boat keeps the pond from freezing over. They |
| need leaders who are prepared to alter such plans | | | | ask. They provide feedback. They invite comments on |
| and timetables at a moment's notice. The old ways | | | | their feedback. They synthesize. Then they act. |
| may work, but much of the "science" of business | | | | -- end - |
| management goes out the window when confronted | | | | By: Stephen C. Rafe |
| by the realities of change. Responding to market | | | | 2010, Stephen C. Rafe. All rights Reserved. |
| situations is no longer enough to ensure success. | | | | |