How did we miss the fact that business is in perpetual motion?

A recent article discussing the challenges faced by Starbucks made a striking observation: “They didn’t do anything wrong; the world just changed around them.” Sounds like an axiom for business and life in general. Everything is in perpetual motion. Despite this reality, many business leaders operate under a false assumption that stability or status quo equates to no change. Remember back in the COVID-19 era when there was talk about “when things get back to normal” or “getting to the new normal”? 

There is another philosophy to consider as leaders navigate change: Perpetual motion in business is the only norm. Static periods of sameness, or what we may perceive as a steady state, are rare exceptions in business. Yet, we acknowledge perpetual motion in other areas of science. 

Biological science tells us that about 330 billion cells are replaced in our bodies daily, equivalent to 1% of all our cells. Every three months, about 30 trillion cells are replenished: bodies in perpetual motion. On a grander scale, we experience planet Earth spinning at 1,000 miles per hour while simultaneously orbiting the sun at 77,000 miles an hour. It is accurate to say that most of what we experience – in ourselves and the world – is in a state of perpetual motion. 

But when it comes to business, this understanding disappears. Leaders overlook the metaphor of bodies in perpetual motion. We get comfortable with the familiar past and may shy away from an uncertain future. We’re clear about what our customers expect. We’re competent with our technology. We know how to engage our employees. We like our go-to-market operating models. Yet, at this very moment, each of these anchor points we perceive as “the way things are” are in motion. Customers’ expectations are evolving. Technology is advancing. Employees’ expectations are changing. As a result, go-to-market models don’t fit the operating environment quite as well as they did yesterday.    

In reality, we’re always in between: we’re in a liminal or transitional state. The concept of liminality is one of an ambiguous state that exists between two different places, stages or conditions. If there is a new normal, this is it. And this means as leaders, our ability to guide our businesses in navigating change is a required competency.

The invitation we have as leaders is to recognize that our businesses exist in a state of continuous transformation, simultaneously shedding outdated strategies while embracing new paradigms. When we shift our mental model to a place of comfort in ambiguity and over-familiarity, we take a significant step toward demonstrating Change Leadership. Today’s opportunity is to build our acumen for operating in the liminal zone, where change is the steady state.

Steps to elevating change leadership acumen

• Recognizing perpetual motion means innovation is a core business value for your company. Innovation is more than developing new products or services. It includes the exploration of new ways of understanding customers’ interests and priorities, new engagement approaches, organizational structures, and go-to-market models that fit today’s requirements and will adapt well as tomorrow unfolds.
• Recognize the cues and clues that changing conditions are unfolding. Albert Einstein said, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” What he didn’t elaborate on is knowing when it’s time to change. Some of the best cues and clues that inform leaders about unfolding changes in the operating environment include emerging shifts in demand, supply changes, emerging customer engagement approaches, as well as systemic factors impacting all organizations (inflation, national or global economic expansion or contraction, tax code changes and the like).  
• Embody organizational agility. Organizational agility means leaders and team members are attuned to continually evolving conditions within their business, monitor subtle, gradual, rapid or event-driven shifts in the external operating environment, infer implications of environmental dynamics for their business and adapt and adjust activities, resource allocation and operating models as conditions change.
• Empower all stakeholders as early warning indicators. Every team member (and, in many cases, customers and partners) has the opportunity to serve as an agility advocate. By inviting employees to identify and help address shifts in the way the company does business, leaders create engagement and elevate organizational agility. This includes viewing the collection and interpreting environmental change indicators and opportunities for pre-emptive change business-as-usual activities. 
• Embrace change management as a core element of leadership and own it: French philosopher Rene Descartes wrote that if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. In the context of continuous change, develop your organization’s understanding of leading change. Champion a vision of where the organization is going in the evolution of who you serve and how you deliver to your customers.

How did we miss the fact that Business is in perpetual motion? Perhaps we accepted the conventional wisdom that said static and status quo are synonymous conditions in the business world. They’re not. The belief that business can exist in a static state is a myth. The world is in constant motion, and so too is business. Leaders who recognize and embrace this reality will be better equipped to navigate the complexities of our business operating environment, preparing their organizations not only to survive but thrive.

Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.

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