It only takes a micro second to change!

There is much written about change. People who want us to change, things we want to change, and people perhaps we would like to change. Throughout the election campaign we seem to constantly be hearing about the need for change, the opportunity for change, and even when is the right time to change. Businesses are always grappling with change. As markets change businesses have to respond. Even the widest macro economic conditions are always changing, and these affect how markets behave, which in turn affects the way that organisations have to respond. Look at how cigarette companies have had to change their advertising and marketing over the last forty years – changing advertising styles, messages, and even markets. For a more current, more rapid example, look at how banks have had to change their products and branding to reflect both the products that they can actually offer and the reputation of their industry as a whole. Marketing Norwich as a creative centre for the East, as a dynamic business hub just 90 minutes from London, as a city of culture also requires cultural change locally!

There are lots of business books written about change, and often change is described as something that happens over time, which happens gradually. Books often describe how change has to be understood, accepted, the implemented, then reviewed to take a positive outcome from the experience. I have recently been reading a little about the prison service and life in a prison. One of the main objectives of putting someone in prison is to change their behaviour so they don’t re-offend. So does change happen during their sentence, or if successful, does the change occur in that split second that they are released back into community. There has to be specific point in time when they go from being imprisoned to be free. My point here is simply that whilst perhaps it is entirely necessary to have a build up time period to change, and perhaps a reflective period after change, but change itself I don’t think happens gradually, it happens in a moment. Perhaps the trick to successful change is recognising that moment and encouraging it, protecting it, and celebrating it.