Leadership in the Time of Cholera

This title is meant to be more than provocative. In case you are unfamiliar with the novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I will explain. The novel is set in the "in-between time" of the romanticism of the late 19th century and the rationalism of the early 20th century. There is lots of chaos in in-between times. All bets are off.

I think that the life of organizations, whether global or not, is also at a very important in-between time. Many organizations are experiencing rapid change. The cycle times between start up and growth and shut down and divestiture are diminishing. For some background on business situations read, The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins (Harvard Business School Press, 2003). Everyday examples abound; one of my clients has had 7 bosses in 2 years.

In setting up this blog, I was able to experience this "in-between time" in action. I called upon a friend of mine who performs magic on system architecture. After a brief discussion, Nik said, "Let's start with a blog. Then, later if you decide you want a website, we can do that too." After my tutorial, I decided I wanted to "learn by doing" and got down to work. One goal was to redirect my domain name to the blog site. I didn't want clients to have to input "blogspot". I spent a day at "Google university". To do anything you have to be able to define it in a language that Google folks speak. Then, Google sends you to their "business partner" Godaddy, from whom you have bought your domain name (even though you don't know this). The structure of this relationship is fascinating (I digress).

The Godaddy folks will actually talk to me on the phone and they are helpful. The second time I called Godaddy the representative laughed when I asked if she had ever really spoken with anyone from Google. She promised to provide a fix for me through her supervisor. She told me that "things are crazy" but that it would "be okay". I believed her.

All along the way, Philip from Google was patient and nice. He kept writing, "Thank you for your question." By the end of the day I was exhausted and my head hurt. By morning, my Google e-mail worked and my domain name was redirected. I am grateful.

I can only imagine what it must be like to be a leader (supervisor, manager, team leader) in the Google universe right now. However, I know that this phenomena is happening in some way in every organization that is growing or changing (M & A, new CEO, turnaround, etc.). Leaders must be able to stay productive through change. Thankfully, this can be learned.

No short course here. The place to start is to learn to do something new every week - or at least every month. It should be big enough that it shakes you up. It makes you feel incompetent, uncomfortable and for some of those who love process, excited and thrilled. In this way you start to embody change. You will experience more ease. In this in-between time where information is more available than our capacity to use it and the structure in many organizations will never catch up with its function, you must get better at leading change. Always, start with yourself. I imagine that businesses bought by Google will morph or die in very short order. What will earn them their place is their capacity to change and grow and enjoy the ride. It is too exhausting to fight. Better to dive in and have fun.