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How To Create Change That Lasts
When Lou Gerstner took over at IBM in 1993, the century-old tech giant was in dire straits. Overtaken by nimbler upstarts, like Microsoft in software, Compaq in hardware and Intel in microprocessors, it was hemorrhaging money. Many believed that it needed to be broken up into smaller, more focused units in order to compete.
Yet Gerstner saw it differently and kept the company intact, which led to one of the most dramatic turnarounds in corporate history. Today, more than a quarter century later, while many of its formal rivals have long since disappeared IBM is still profitable and on the cutting edge of many of the most exciting technologies.
That success was no accident. In researching my book, Cascades, I studied not only business transformations, but many social and political movements as well. What I found is that while most change efforts fail, the relatively few that succeed follow a pattern that is amazingly consistent. If you want to create change that lasts, here’s what you need to do.
Build Trust Through Shared Values
When Mahatma Gandhi returned to India, he began to implement a strategy of civil disobedience similar to what he had so successful in his campaigns in South Africa. He would later call this his Himalayan miscalculation. “Before a people could be fit for offering…
