When Change Gets Spooky, Be The Scarecrow
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”
Happy October from Elevate Labs! We welcome the month of Halloween and the coming of Spooky Season by considering this quote from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (which celebrates its 207th anniversary this year!). Two centuries later, when it comes to great and sudden change, we find that not much has really changed… change can still be very painful for people and the organizations they try to build!. Why is this the case? And what can we do to prevail in the face of great and sudden change?
We here at Elevate Labs think about change through the P.E.S.T. model: changes that face your organization today are Political, Economic, Social, and Technological… usually some Frankenstein-ish (sorry) mix of more than one of them together! We’re sure that your organization is facing at least one of these changes now. These changes are in most cases completely out of your organization’s control and are unavoidable. Experiencing these changes is not automatically a death-sentence!
Political Forces: Local ordinances, Health & safety regulators, Labor law & organizations
Economic Forces: Business cycles, Interest & inflation rates, Local workforce
Social Forces: Social preferences, Career attitudes, Cultural norms
Technological Forces: New software platforms, Generative AI, Social media post / reviews
What stumps most organizations is the delayed time it takes to realize that a change is taking place and to enact the necessary systematic and institutional changes to survive and come out on top of these changes. Usually, managers are unable to acknowledge and prepare for these changes because they are distracted by putting out fires. In our Leading High Performing Teams Leadership Intensive, we refer to this as the challenge of moving from firefighter to fire chief, but for the sake of Spooky Season, we will refer to this as becoming a scarecrow.
A scarecrow does not run around chasing away every pest as much as they stand grounded and observe the entire field. Also, the scarecrow has a loyal team of scarers (maybe trick-or-treaters?) willing to take risks to scare away pests, even if that means overcoming multiple failures. If the scarecrow were to leave their post and chase after pests and crows, who would keep watch? Yes, the scarecrow does perform the occasional scare to clear the field when the time comes. Overall, though, the scarecrow spends their time watching the horizon, noticing trends in weather and tracking the pests that challenge the field’s yield. If you find yourself responsible for an entire field with a team of scarer, it’s likely that your team needs a scarecrow, not another scarer.
Manage the field. Be like the scarecrow.
Want to learn more about how to show up as a scarecrow when your field needs you the most? We offer compass sessions and intensives monthly to give you the skills you need to thrive in your leadership position!
Check out our upcoming events page to learn more!
