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Business Services Industry

Don't Go Changing

Entrepreneur, March, 2000

...just because it's the hip thing to do. It may not be the best thing to do.

Every time Daniel Huntsman specifies a color for a screw on a hinge, he knows there's a good chance it will change. If Huntsman Architectural Group buys a new computer to help create office designs, the CEO knows it will soon be rendered obsolete by a new and improved model. And whenever a new market develops for the 19-year-old company, as it recently has with the growing demand to design spaces for Bay area Internet start-ups, Huntsman knows it will eventually be replaced by a new market requiring new skills.

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The process of change is exhausting and may be ultimately destructive if left unchecked, according to Huntsman. "I get worn out by it," says the 50-year-old, whose San Francisco firm employs 55 people. "Change is good, but too much of it wears things out. And change for the sake of change isn't always good."

Numerous business executives agree with Huntsman that change must be limited sometimes, instead of uncritically embraced, if it's to be managed effectively. The Federal Reserve Bank, 3M and Wal-Mart a few large, successful organizations that have been singled out as being less than enthusiastic about sweeping change. The Fed, as part of its Y2K risk control effort, actually proscribed change at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. By limiting changes, it provided a stable internal processing environment entering 2000 and minimized the changes its customers would have to make to applications that interface with the Fed's software.

Limiting change may well be an idea whose time has come. Change has been presented lately as an absolute good, something to be actively encouraged for its own intrinsic worth. But the pursuit of pointless new initiatives wastes corporate resources, warns Deborah J. Barrett, Ph.D., instructor and director of MBA communications at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Management in Houston.

"Unfortunately, businesses have gotten caught up in change for change's sake," says Barrett. "They think changing will keep them out in front of the competition. But organizations need some stability. The idea of change for change's sake isn't a good approach to managing a business."

A DEVELOPING PHENOMENON

People have been concerned about change throughout the ages. Four centuries ago, Sir V/alter Raleigh warned, "There is nothing exempt from the peril of mutation." In the early 20th century, management innovators like Frederick W. Taylor studied the effects of changes in compensation schemes on worker productivity. And in 1970, author Alvin Toffler made change a popular issue in his book Future Shock.

"The key guy was Alvin Toffler," says lerome Katz, a professor of management at Saint Louis University. "He was the first one saying the pace of change was accelerating and could get too fast for people."

Future Shock was a bestseller in its first year. Since that time, however, attitudes toward change have, well, changed. That's notably true in business. And today the concept that change can be beneficial has been distorted to the point that its embraced uncritically by the average executive, explains Katz. "Change is now a generic good," he says. "If you say you're not in favor of change, people look at you funny."

Love of change is, to some extent, a particularly American passion. "In many parts of the world, change is looked upon skeptically," Katz says. China, for instance, is both a hotbed of entrepreneurship and a highly traditional society simultaneously, he notes. Other societies make that work.

Americans, especially entrepreneurs, embrace change because it creates opportunities for new approaches that can spawn new enterprises. In some industries, an obvious one being technology, product evolution is so rapid that finding some way to endure a punishing rate of change is vital, notes Barrett.

But no matter where you are, what industry you operate in or how large or small your business is, change has two constant features. "Change is a classic double-edged sword," says Katz. "It's a stress and a benefit. And when the stress gets to be too great for the benefit, you need to stop."

KNOW YOUR LIMITS

The first step in effectively limiting change is to know when you're experiencing too much. It's impossible to stay in business without changing at all, so how do you know when you're changing too much? There are several signs of excessive change.

The most important one comes from employees. Any time they don't seem to know the company's objective, suspect that change has outpaced the human ability to adjust. "When there's a feeling among employees that there's no core direction or principles from which they can operate, that's a real danger sign," Barrett says.

Of course, it's not always easy to discern employees' inner states. But you can look at objectively measurable traits such as trends in absenteeism, employee turnover and error rates to help reveal a work force overstressed by change. In a small business, you may notice employees taking longer lunches or spending more time on personal phone calls, says Katz. "You're seeing overwhelmed people who are trying to give themselves some space," he says.

Business Services Industry

Don't Go Changing

Entrepreneur, March, 2000

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