The title of this post comes from a quote from Yoda, the famous Star Wars characters. Who would have thought that many years later this quote would be so applicable to organizations seeking to become more collaborative. This quote was actually used by one of our clients during an internal presentation to her executive team in order to drum up support and I loved that she included it! I have spent the past few weeks or so, speaking with organizations who say they want to become more collaborative and are concerned with the future of work. These same organizations have been stuck in the same place for over a year now, making little progress in their efforts. That’s because it seems as though many are caught with having one foot moving forward and the other moving backward. In other words, they have commitment issues.
One of the frustrating and unfortunate things that I see companies doing is getting started with something only to stop a few months later and then resuming again a few months after that. It’s like trying watch a very scratched DVD that keeps jerking and skipping around. Business leaders need to look at collaboration and the future of work as a marriage, they either commit to it or they don’t. Commitment doesn’t just mean saying “I do” either, it means acting on that “I do” as well. This means giving it 110% from the get-go and not starting small and “seeing what happens.” At this point there should be no doubt in the minds of any business leader at any company in the world that the way we work is changing and evolving and that organizations needs to adapt. Anyone that is seriously doubting the reality of this will end up looking for a job soon…
It’s easy to spend years researching, learning, and educating without actually doing. In fact things can change so quickly that by the time you are done “planning” the landscape will be unrecognizable. I can’t emphasize this enough, organizations that aren’t committed won’t succeed. As the wise Yoda once said…
