Measuring Enterprises' Capacity for Change
Change is difficult. The default mode of most organizations and people is to resist change. It's like a helmsman who steers a ship straight into an iceberg because he doesn't want to rock the boat. Agile businesses, however, that can redirect energy to fast and positive change and transformation can exploit many more opportunities than enterprises mired in resistance. The challenge for leaders today is to create an organization that is not only prepared and willing to change, but that also has enough energy and resources to succeed. One of the rules of the First Law of Thermodynamics in physics is, "Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed.” I propose there is an application of this rule in business as well. If energy is being consumed on resisting changes to your business, then it is not available for making positive changes to your business. If markets are changing due to economic conditions, competition, techn