If you can’t work with the status quo of a company should you get out rather than try to change it?
The status quo - the existing state of affairs - is a natural phenomenon. I think the problems start when the need is felt to protect and defend the status quo because this tells me that continuous improvement has stopped. Continuous improvement is about making successive small changes forever, based on application, inspection and adaptation, that bring about progressive improvements. In my experience, in the absence of continuous improvement the status quo stagnates.
When you care about the company (and you should care) you want to try to help it improve so that it can become more successful. Why wouldn’t a company want to get better at what it does? But ultimately change has to come from within and if the company and its people are happy with the status quo and you’re not, I think they’re best left alone and you’re better off out of it. It’s a tough call but what does your conscience say?
Friday, 14 December 2007
Become part of the status quo or leave?
Posted by Simon Baker
1 Comment
Well, I can tell you that my team and I left out old company exactly for the reasons you note - managment happy with status quo and unwilling to try anything new.
At our new company, we are leading a company-wide agile implementation, and quite simply kicking ass. So I guess this counts as a strong vote for leaving!