The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.

— Alfred North Whitehead

For leaders, implementing major change is quite the high wire act…

Under weighting the urgency and magnitude of the changes risks toppling back over to current convention.  The culture,  the current ways of working, current processes, and current procedures have a palpable gravitational pull that tips us back to the comfortable status quo.

But over weighting can overwhelm.  Just as each of us as individuals have a threshold, so do organizations; driving major change beyond the capacity of the organization to adapt freezes the action.  We shut down.  Immobilized.

Both the status quo as well as organizational immobilization leads to quite a fall when real change is a competitive imperative.

So, as if walking the high wire, change leaders must find the right balance, with every step.  Progress involves counterbalancing…