Change Is Good

The late British novelist Arnold Bennett penned, “Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawback and discomfort.” I can only imagine what he’d say now, given society’s incredible pace of change. Despite the drawbacks and discomforts, change is good and a culture that embraces this motto can go further and faster than one that does not.

It’s important for me to qualify my remarks by noting that change for the sake of change is not particularly good. For example, I have seen many IT executives make changes for the sake of their own legacy, or to simply look like they’re doing something important. That type of change usually leads to failure because change requires perseverance, and people have a hard time rallying behind (and staying focused on) an effort with ambiguous benefits. Similarly, efforts that don’t tie directly to business goals and the company’s mission tend to fail because people (especially CEOs) want to work towards something tangible.