Change Management, Success and Entrepreneurship.

Photo by Fabien Bazanegue on Unsplash

#psychad – Advocating change as something that is necessary, constant or essential not only leads to false procedural assumptions. Doing so may also instigate organisations that are constantly drifting, with no order and structure to allow orientation and direction.

Consider change as part of the process when transforming from one functional and stable order to the next. This will most likely include a period of lesser or even no control. Trying to control change will almost certainly be counterproductive to the transformation endeavour.

Change could therefore be considered as a means to transformation, as an attempt to reach a newly refined, functional and stable order. Initiating change would then be most recommendable from a resourceful, stable and fully functional situation, allowing to bear the risk involved of loosing control for a period of time during the transition.

Interview (2012) with Prof. Dr. Peter Kruse as part of „Learning to learn“. Peter Kruse, German psychologist, business consultant and honorary professor talks about change management, success and entrepreneurship.

Change Management in Companies

Panta Rhei = Everything flows, constant change?

Kruse explains why the idea of everything flowing in change management is wrong. For companies to come into a new stable order, the existing stable order must be disturbed. A company that behaves according to „constant change“ would not be making money.

Managers need a willingness to move away from the previous stable order, through the intermediate state of crisis-driven disruption, to a new strategic and stable order. They need to be aware of the risk of transition and not trivialise the concept of change management by using terms such as Panta Rhei.

Entrepreneurship Instead of Management

In change management, the focus is on leaving the current stable order in order to achieve a higher goal. For the change, a payment is always  due, because company will not be as efficient during the transitional period. In other words, entrepreneurs, together with their employees, must allow the transition phase to reach a new order.

Difference Between Managers and Entrepreneurs

The manager optimises processes and ensures that the existing system works and generates profit. The entrepreneur, on the other hand, invests energy in processes, without knowing whether they will be successful. The entrepreneur bears the risk that comes with the process. Therefore, it is essential that the entrepreneur carefully observes the relevant markets with the highest possible degree of awareness. The new stable state of his company must be adapted to the market and resonate with demand, for the change effort to be a success.

Business Success Stories

When founders discover a source of added value to capture in the future, based on an accurate perception of markets, then this is where entrepreneurial success originate. Success is a story always told in revers, in terms of what has been ultimately achieved, whilst avoiding to talk about the pains along the way.

Here lies the difficulty for those founders, who aim for success without being willing to endure the pain of transition. Entrepreneurs need to constantly be willing to rediscover their entrepreneurial attitude and be prepared to take on the risk involved in transitioning.

What is success?

The success of the entrepreneur is not linked to the financial profits as the outcome of a company, but rather connected to the willingness to try something new and to discover future added value on the basis of accurate market observations. In this respect, an entrepreneurial definition of success could relate to the one offered by Adam Kahane.