Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Kieran Flanagan + Dan Gregory, Wiley, $29.95.
Specialising in leading change, Flanagan and Gregory provide some food for thought. They question one of the key tenets of renowned Greek philosopher Heraclitus that noted ‘change is the only constant in life’.
It may be bold, but this book challenges that theory or, more precisely, the word ‘only’. There are answers to questions such as are some things evergreen: what do we want to hold on to? What, if anything, is forever?
A relevant reminder is change is inevitable and we should prepare ourselves accordingly.
“However, we also believe it’s worth considering what other things will not fundamentally change, and how this understanding might actually prepare future generations, our organizations and, indeed, ourselves, for wherever change awaits us in the future.”
They’re not alone in their thinking as they’ve interviewed and surveyed hundreds of people from around the world in an effort to discover which skills they have most relied on to achieve their success and the skills they believe will always matter.
Change has multiple dimensions and, consequently, multiple impacts. “If we are to adequately prepare ourselves for an ‘unpredictable future’ we should take a more complete view of change. Our goal in this book is to broaden our emotional palette from one of fear ad panic to one of calm acceptance and even inspiration.”
As a result of work and research in the past decade, three critical areas of change have been identified: what’s changing, what’s unchanging and what needs changing.
This informs how well people and businesses perform in an environment of change and also identify where their focus should be applied in terms of skills, strategy and investment, in both time and resources.
