Change: Painful but Necessary

This is a great article written by the President of DKI. Advanced Restoration Corp. is a proud member of DKI. Just figured I would share this with everyone. It's a battle I face everyday.

Change: Painful but Necessary

By Dale Sailer

President of DKI

For years, I have been a champion for change. Starting with the first time I heard Dr. Robert Kriegel preach to a large audience of executives nearly two decades ago that “if it ain’t broke, break it”, I have been very vocal that personal or business plans that do nothing more than seek to sustain the status quo represent nothing more than well-worn recipes for eventual decline and failure.

Our world – politically, professionally and personally – is in a constant state of flux. The pace of life becomes overwhelming at times for even the most calm and organized person. We often feel that if we could just stop and rest for a while – coast, if you will – we could get a better handle on things. The problem with this is that the business world doesn’t afford any enterprise the opportunity to be complacent. Running in place while everyone else is moving forward doesn’t usually result in a successful outcome.

This lesson has been painfully playing out on a national stage over the last twelve months, and in fact for much longer. The painful reality is that the recent rash of bankruptcy filings across many industries are not the result of policies and actions over the last five months, or even the last nine years, but rather the inability of certain industries and institutions to support and drive internal change.

The American auto industry is a classic example of this failure. For nearly half a century Detroit has either dramatically delayed or overtly killed every meaningful innovation or idea that would have resulted in either significant gains in operational efficiency or considerable gains in market share. Why? The primary reason is because it was easier and more comfortable to maintain the status quo rather than make uncomfortable change, whether affected through labor strikes, lobbying efforts, or any of a number of different actions. The clear result is a domestic industry that has, in essence, given away the market to foreign competitors while wallowing in outright financial ruin.

Government is no different, as inefficiency and deficits mount uncontrollably at the city, state and federal levels. The age old reason remains the same - because regardless of party affiliation, the status quo guarantees a politician’s re-election. While their constituents want ‘change’, none of them actually want any change that has any perceived negative impact on them individually. Thus no change ends up being preferred to any change. And until someone in elected government has the actual political will to drive change at the risk of NOT being re-elected, meaningful change will never come.

Now despite being a champion of change generally, and specifically within the DKI organization, I will fully admit that actual change is hard. I learned this first hand when I received a new laptop after using the same old trusted one for nearly four years. I was quite comfortable with my technology life, familiar with the ‘old’ software my laptop ran, and knowledgeable with all the shortcuts necessary to make it hum. Life was good. I realized that with every passing day, the risk of my computer crashing for good increased exponentially, but I admit that I pushed off change as long as possible. But ultimately, I knew that change was necessary.

My new laptop is clearly not yet my friend. Newer versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are frustrating in that they are different than the older versions I am used to. New ‘features’ feel like new ‘barriers’ to productivity. All my Internet cookies are gone, as are all my ‘quick fill’ email addresses – both will need to be slowly rebuilt. My new keyboard is bigger (meaning clunkier), has a different ‘feel’, and all the computer’s ports are in a different place. In short, I am a long way from my comfort zone and I don’t like it.

However I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am actually quickly getting used to the newer applications’ functionality and I am finding new solutions to problems that I couldn’t solve before. My new laptop is faster and my screen is much, much easier to see. And with some new software now loaded, I can actually communicate more effectively with my work colleagues and my customers. So while change represented a very short-term step backward, and has clearly been uncomfortable, it is also very clear that in the medium to long-term, I will make giant leaps forward in productivity and before I know it, my technology life will be as comfortable as it ever was.

You can rest assured that as a corporate organization, DKI is always seeking ways to change for the better. We do not have an interest in being complacent and remaining in our comfort zone. Rather, we constantly assess our business so that we can deliver new products and services so that our customers -whether contractor, insurance carrier, risk manager, property manager or supplier -can rely on us to help them remain ahead of their respective competitors. While the ride may not always be comfortable, the view from the front is a lot more exciting than it is from the back. I look forward to traveling with you out front.