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The Culture+ Blog

Insights to help you create a compelling and connected culture

The Boogeyman lives in change

The unspoken rationale we eventually settled on was that “he knows the organization,” “he knows the work,” and (most importantly), “we know him.” With those three truths, we let a very nice, very affable, but underperforming colleague stay on the team for way too long. “We know him.” That was the most powerful one. We knew what we were getting. We were comfortable with him. We knew what he was all about. Yes, we only managed to get about 75% production out of him, but at least we knew what we had. And, if we decided to make a change, then it might prove disastrous. Who might we end up with? Eventually, he moved on and we found a replacement. The replacement was very nice, and very affable. The replacement showed up on time. The replacement worked diligently. The replacement was way more than we expected. Lesson (painfully) learned. The boogeyman that lives in potential change only has power when we grant him power. If we continue to focus on the horizon, on what is possible, and keep moving forward, then the boogeyman doesn’t have a chance. It turns out that change is not synonymous with bad.

by Jonathan

Jonathan Wilson is the CEO of Sandcastle, a leadership training and development consultancy. He frequently speaks and writes about building high performance teams. Jonathan regularly presents his latest findings and insights to business and government leaders at local, state, and national association events (both in-person and virtual). His first book, Future Leader: Rebooting Leadership to Win the Millennial and Tech Future is available now.

Tagged: Leadership

Published on: October 8, 2018

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