ICHAK ADIZES reflects on why change, problems, and solutions are inseparable—and on the leader’s task of building an organization that can grow through that ongoing tension.
I’m not saying anything new when I say that things change. But what happens when change comes?
Change always brings something new, and many people immediately see that “new” as a problem and ask, “What are we going to do?”
I’m told that in Chinese, the words “problem” and “opportunity” are the same. That’s why I coined the word “opporthreat.” What does it mean? You have to decide. Do you want the new event to be a problem or an opportunity? It’s up to you. Some people see only problems. Others see opportunities. But every problem is really an opportunity to learn something new. It’s an opportunity to solve a problem.
I once saw a quote: “A person who believes he is wise is ignorant and a person who believes he is ignorant is wise.” If you are constantly learning, then every problem becomes an opportunity to learn something new.
How do you solve a problem?
You have to decide what to do. But that’s not enough. That’s the deficiency of leadership training today. They teach how to make good decisions—marketing decisions, financial decisions—but they don’t teach how to implement them. For implementation, you need to deal with stakeholders. That’s called politics. But we don’t teach politics in business schools.
Once you implement a solution to a problem or exploit an opportunity, what happens? The solution causes change. In other words, the solution has created a new problem.
When will you have no more problems? When you stop changing, when you stop living.
To be a leader, you must manage change. But to manage change well and get exceptional results, your organization must be healthy, because energy is limited. If you want to expand your business and the company has no energy, nothing will happen. If your company is sick, no matter how good your plans are, the plans won’t work.
The purpose of leadership is to build a healthy organization that produces exceptional results.
If you are constantly learning,
then every problem becomes
an opportunity to learn something new.
Ichak Adizes
Dr. Adizes is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading management experts. He has received 21 honorary doctorates and is the author of almost 30 books that have been translated into 36 languages. Dr. ... Read More
