Quotebook: The Job of a Change Agent

I have often joked that I want my title to be The Disruptor of the Status Quo.  It’s not really a joke, but so far I’ve not succeeded in getting the title officially.

I love this paragraph from a Bill Taylor article on HBR:

The job of the change agent is not just to surface high-minded ideas. It is to summon a sense of urgency inside and outside the organization, and to turn that urgency into action. It’s one thing for leaders to use fresh eyes to devise a new line of sight into the future. It’s quite another to muster the rank-and-file commitment to turn a compelling vision into a game-changing performance. My friend and Fast Company cofounder Alan Webber puts it well. Progress, he likes to say, is a math formula. It only happens when the cost of the status quo is greater than the risk of change. That’s why the third principle of change is for leaders to encourage a sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo, to persuade their colleagues that business as usual is the ultimate risk, not a safe harbor from the storms of disruption.

You can read the whole article right here.  It would be a great way to prepare for the changes that must come.