Managing change by small steps

It is said that people don't like change. Certainly many change programmes fail because people do not embrace change and consciously or unconsciously reject recommendations that would lead to a better performance.

We live in a world of change and most people embrace the benefits without even noticing. The last Christmas season recorded huge growth in purchases on the Internet. Google, e-Bay, Amazon are not only part of our language but are an increasingly normal part of our daily life - home as well as work. Postal services that were facing loss of traffic with e-mails replacing letters are now experiencing growth of the small packets and parcels of the e-commerce market.
Broadband now has more than 50% market share of the telephone market in the UK and other countries.

We have had video players, DVDs, mobile phones, satellite television. iTunes has exploded onto the music market and we now have an "iPod generation".

In Europe we have seen the growth of cheap flights, with pioneers Easyjet and Ryanair setting a trend that is spreading around the world.

And if you look at clothes, then last year's fashions have always been out of date; people seize on the latest thing.

So, how do we reconcile these changes with the fear of change? What are the characteristics of these changes?

They are voluntary
People adopt them when they are ready
They are seen as benefits
People follow early adopters.

In summary, they are viral, they occur as the sum of many small individual decisions, rather than a major change imposed from above. And together they support and feed off each other.
I went to a talk by Adrian Shooter, Chairman of Chiltern Railways, last year at which he was comparing the success of his own railway service between Birmingham and London and the enormous cost and time overruns of the West Coast Main Line upgrade between London, Birmingham and beyond. The one was a massive scheme national scheme; Shooter's was a combination of many small developments. He also had a big vision, but he bought a train at a time, upgraded a station here and extended a car park there. Over the last few years Chiltern Railways has doubled the frequency, reduced travel time, increased train length and kept ticket prices way below the competition. They also have the highest passenger satisfaction.

Sometimes revolution is necessary, but normally evolution is more effective.

It is good for a man to be proud of his son; and I am fortunate to have a son who loves what he does and is good at it. He has a particular talent that I have observed since he was at junior school. He is able to stand outside himself and observe – and be satisfied with what he sees. We call this the ability to third position. He has been learning the skills of team leader, running two teams in parallel, so I asked him how he does it. His simple description is this week's Coaching
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