Is your focus on optimization or transformation?

Incremental change can steal your team's energy from an even better pursuit.

THINK ON IT: Is your focus on optimization or transformation? 

Think about the energy currently invested in your business; that is, the sum total of all of the effort and thinking your employees expend to advance the organization toward its goals. 

Now ask yourself: How much of it is focused on optimization—those things which make you more efficient? And how much is focused on transformation—those things which give increase to your customer value and competitive advantage? 

If you're like most executives, the honest answer may be sobering. That's because it's easier to optimize than transform our businesses. It’s easier to work from the status quo than it is to disrupt your own organization. 

But while optimization is important and necessary, it is not sustainable. Transformation is. 

And while optimization may improve our business results, it’s not strategy. At the heart of every great strategy, lies transformation. 

Don't let the optimization of your business steal energy from a better pursuit. Let your competitors optimize their business while you quietly transform your own.

“The language of business has a clear bias—toward equilibrium. Following this bias, managers are expected to routinize—they are not generally expected to explore risk, to learn, or to create.”

— Robert E. Quinn

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