13 Responsiveness
I
T HAS ALWAYS BEEN NECESSARY TO BE RESPONSIVE TO CHANGE AND PEOPLE
have always reacted to the prospect of change differently—some
resisting it, some welcoming it. Responsiveness and the capacity to
react intelligently to change go hand in hand with the ability to be
successful. As Hilary Cropper puts it:Change is endemic. Organizations and individuals need to be able to
change their spots, to live with some discomfort. It’s all about survival.
According to Thomas Huhn, change tends to be articulated both by
younger people and by those who are new to the area of work. Writing
some 30 years ago, Huhn is credited with being the inventor of the
word “paradigm” in his fascinating book The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions. As we watch the impact of technology on the business
environment today, Huhn’s observations seem strangely prescient.
A paradigm is a framework or pattern, a way of making sense of
the world. Moore’s law, the idea that computer power doubles every
18 months, is an example of a paradigm. So is the now discredited
notion that you can have a job for life in one organization or sector.
Most change is comparatively gradual in the great scheme of
things. Even if you feel that the change you are anticipating is enor-
mous—a paradigm shift—it will be helpful to show how it can be
achieved by a series of incremental moves. These will be easier for
the minds of the people involved to grasp. Most people would pre-
fer to have some kind of model for what they are being asked to do.
From the perspective of the mind, there are a number of prin-
ciples that those managing change may want to consider: