Ichak Adizes - How to Manage in Times of Crisis

Why can’t we have no problems? People often have expectations that if only they follow this system, if only they follow this religion, if only they follow this book, if only they follow this ideology—if only they do this or that—they will have no more problems. That is the promise of all religions and all political ideologies.

But that’s utopian. The truth is, you can stop having problems only when there is no more change. And that means when you are…dead. Dead! Think about it: The quietest place in town is the cemetery. Nothing is happening there. To be alive, by definition, means to have problems. If you don’t have problems, don’t worry, they’re on their way. Life is problems. Why? Because change creates problems, and change is life. (A Google search produced 3.8 million hits for the expression “Life’s a bitch and then you die.”) Only when there is no life will there be no change, and only then will we have no problems. Or at least that is what we think —because so far no one has come back from the hereafter and told us differently.

Problems come with the territory called living, and the faster the rate of change in your life or your company, the more problems you will have.

So, your first Take-home Value is:

If you have problems, relax! You are in good company. You are alive. And if you believe you don’t have problems, then your biggest problem could be that you do not recognize your problems.

I once had a client in the software business. The company grew very rapidly: 100 percent a year. When its managers complained to me about how many problems they had, I asked them, “What do you expect? With that rate of growth and, thus, change, you must have lots of problems. That is normal.”

It is normal to have problems. We have already covered that. But when you cannot handle a problem caused by change—aha!—now you have a problem that is abnormal. And if you do not solve the abnormal problems, over time they can become fatal problems. That is what is happening to the big automotive companies of Detroit. They have been so slow in responding to market needs, for so long, that now no loans or donations will save them. Why? Because they are no longer facing normal problems. Now they seem to be facing fatal problems.

Problems change in their severity over time. But having bigger problems does not necessarily mean that the situation is worse.

One year I sent a greeting card to all my clients wishing them a happy and productive new year. My wish was:

At the bottom of the card in small letters, it read:

You are as big as the problems you can handle. So having bigger problems is not a sign of dying, it is a sign of growing. Let us assume that this year you face the problem of how to successfully sell your product regionally. Several years later, you have the bigger problem of how to manage sales nationally; still later, you have problems managing an international company; and eventually you face the problem of how to convert an international company into a well-managed multinational.

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