Instant Success vs. Delayed Success?

Thursday, October 15, 2009 by Milan Larson

In a recent conversation with a professional colleague we were discussing the reality that sometimes instant success can lead to non-sustainable organizational change.  This colleague was speaking from his own experience based on his organization receiving the Baldrige Award on the first attempt.  Since then he has had the opportunity to visit with other BA recipients who did not receive the award on their first attempt, but rather had to keep improving their processes over time to eventually receive the award.  As my colleague compares his own organization's current culture and openness to new ideas, he finds the other employees in the organization are over confident in their success and therefore less open to continuous change.  Yet, the other organizations that had to work harder to achieve their success seem to have a culture that embraces continuous process improvement.  Their longer journey to success for the other organizations has created a collaborative leadership model that leads to long-term organizational transformation.  

So what do you say...in order for real transformation to seep into an organization's culture, is it better for organizations to achieve instant success or delayed success?

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