196 Leading with NLP
there was no way around. Scylla had six long necks, each with
a head with three rows of teeth. Any sailors that came within
reach of the heads were snapped up and devoured. The
monster was always in motion, weaving backwards and for-
wards, the heads yapping at the passing sailors. Charybdis
was quieter, but just as deadly. It made a whirlpool that
sucked in water three times a day and then let it out in a
huge spout, destroying any ship within range. In business, a
leader must not only navigate all the ordinary dangers of the
market (the rocks and tides), but also avoid falling into the
chaos of Scylla or the petrified inactivity of Charybdis.
Generally companies tend to favour the side of Charybdis
and confuse stability with rigidity. They are not stable but
pseudo-stable, and may be increasingly out of date, bearing
in mind that the procedures they may be clinging to will
have been set up to solve the problems of yesterday. Many
firms have ways of damping down changes that undermine
the existing order. But the best way to deal with change and
uncertainty is not to try to resist it but to move with it. When
a business resists change, or tries to push it to the margins,
the pressure may build up and lead to a sudden drastic up-
heaval. Politics shows this most clearly. The East German
Communist regime spent close to 50 years trying to prevent
change. When it did come it was sudden, violent and un-
stoppable. The longer you put off changing, the deeper it
will be when it comes. The more you suppress it, the more
violent it will be.
Normal, internally driven change that keeps a company
stable tends to follow a pattern.
First, there is a space for people to innovate, to vary pro-
cedures, to experiment and try out different solutions.
There is flexibility in the procedures, a variety of informal
channels, rules that can be bent and broken. This is not the
same as having a research department for new products, it
means renewing the company from the inside in small ways.
Informal channels where people share information and
make connections will not undermine existing processes but
lead to innovation and renewal. Informal channels that grow