You are here. You can't plan a road trip if you don't know both the starting point and the destination. As important as it is to know where you're going, you must also grasp where the organization is today. This will enable you to plan your route to the new culture. In the column, the chief describes his biggest management mistake as setting out to accomplish major organizational change without having a clear grasp of the current culture of the organization.
Nothing destroys significant change efforts more than inaction.
The longer people stay in the old way of doing business, the more difficult it becomes to shake them out of the old culture. During a transition to new leadership and new structure, people expect and look for change early. Don't tolerate inaction-push for movement. While attorneys for both sides made lots of money on fruitless meetings, there had been little actual progress on the issue for many, many months. Within a week or two, we had produced new materials and re-opened discussions under a more positive note.