When is the next tipping point?

Comes a time, a tipping point, whether in the course of our personal lives, our businesses, or even our government, when a convergence of facts and insights forces a clearheaded sense of urgency that can no longer be ignored.

These are healthy events, vital events, because unlike so many rituals aimed at preserving the efficiency of sameness, these are transformational events powered by a feeling of urgency that demands change.

And yet the very word − change – has become a clanking cliché. The mantra of political candidates for decades, “change” is an emotional word and hence its short-term effectiveness. “Change” is a word made impotent in the long-term, for lack of any disciplined process for follow-through.

During a tipping point, new insights, facts and opportunities compel true leaders to ask themselves how the business model must change, whether the existing framework and its interdependent workings still serve the greater potential of the enterprise. This is not a question of changing the business charter of an industrial manufacturer or changing the U.S. Constitution by which our politicians are empowered to govern. It is a question of leadership and the use of a change process predicated on intellectual honesty and agreement, a process for change that is almost never based on a consensus as to the solution.

The process for progressive change has been documented well enough in the business world. It is a process characterized not just by a gathering of insights and facts and a resulting sense of urgency, but by agreement among a company’s leaders as to how the company’s business model must change.

This seems to be the impasse experienced in our government, and often enough in the boardrooms and corner offices of American industry. It is a tipping point that cannot be overcome by such activities as IT, accountancy, HR or even sales. It is a tipping point that is centrally managed by the disciplines of marketing and branding.

Yes, marketing and branding.

Guided by truly effective marketing and branding, a business leader can evaluate when and how to change the present business model. Guided by marketing and branding, a business leader can build a core coalition, establish the company’s vision and mission, communicate and empower change, document and celebrate the resulting victories, and ultimately grow a winning culture that thrives.

All by managing the tipping points for change.

jb

www.centrifuge-now.com