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(Excerpts from an interview with a Workforce Management consultant.)
Milan: "We've all got to learn more about organizational change, to succeed in our own careers and to help our business survive. Over 40% of the companies that were on the Fortune 500 ten + years ago are no longer there. Do you believe that the size of your organization, project or industry or technology vaccinate you from this trend?"
Interviewer: Many large organizations are taking on several change efforts simultaneously.
Milan: "Even middle-level managers are being drawn into change initiatives, and not just as passive followers of some heroic leader."
Interviewer: What if it means your job will be eliminated?
Milan: "All the more reason to cooperate, because you want to be able to say, 'I helped with this effort and as a matter of fact its end result was eliminating my own job. I did the right things, and they contributed to a successful transformation.' That's a terrific pitch in getting your next Job."
Interviewer: What if you'll be okay, but your people may be eliminated?
Milan: "You have a responsibility to employees, but it isn't to protect their status quo. Your responsibility is to help them grow and position themselves for a better future."
Interviewer: What's different about being a follower these days?
Milan: "Followers must be proactive and take on the initiative of change agents themselves. People have to be talented professionally, but additionally they are now expected to provide leadership to make their organizations more agile, more global and to take on new technologies,….and broaden their skills to influence beyond their peers".
Interviewer: Where does Moravec and Associates fit into all this?
Milan: "The Associates portfolio of consulting services build on the beliefs that:
Interviewer: Reality?
Milan: "The facts of reality are always friendly - - it is the interpretation that folks place on them that gets them into trouble"
Interviewer: Is it reasonable to expect a workforce to meet the growing leadership needs to take on the current issues and the future? Won't there be too many 'Chefs in the kitchen'?
Milan: "Technologies enable new organization structures and different work approaches - power is cascaded. The redistribution happens each day and alters the way we conduct business.
(It doesn't always happen automatically, as many strong cultures and successful businesses dam the cascade without even knowing it.)
It all means that leadership must become much much more local! The workforce must become capable of leading as they now have:
If you understand the future starts with today's decisions then you completed the first step toward discharging your obligation to keep the future of the organization alive."