The fall of the wall

From our Friday noon memo #5:

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the zenith of the peaceful grass roots revolution in Germany.
Twenty years later, what does it teach us, as citizens and business professionals?

1. Don’t live in a dream world. Change can happen as unexpectedly as it did in 1989.    
2. Adapt changes early. Don’t wait until the trouble arrives.
3. Streamline people’s energy: a strong sense of great purpose and a set of common values enable them to act together with unprecedented effectiveness, undertake the impossible, and literally break the walls.  

All this, and the last point in particular, cannot be truer for organisations. As Peter Drucker said: “Most people need to feel that they are here for a purpose, and unless an organisation can connect to this need to leave something behind that makes this a better world [...], it won’t be successful over time.” Any wall can simply fall.

Till next time. Natalia

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Comments

[James Cullinan]

Thanks, Volkmar, for another excellent piece of thought leadership. What I also find interesting is that the fall of the Berlin wall in your country and the end of apartheit in mine occurred within about a week of each other (i.e. effectively when Mandela was released from prison in SA). To me this means that there are certain times when overriding change is more likely than others, and this post-crisis environment (cynics like me would say 'between crises'...but you heard that at Executives International last Tuesday!) is one of those moments when people demand better solutions. They either get offered them early, or they lose patience and find a new direction.

So I admit, the case for change has seldom been stronger, but the resistance to change by the various 'governing elites' is still so high. As was the case in each of our countries, either they wake up to what's happening, or they lose the initiative. I hope this campaign of yours helps people to move early and not to store up trouble!

Best wishes, James