After careful thought and cost-benefit analysis, you have decided to make a change in part of your product. Perhaps you are going use a new math curriculum in the middle school or change the reading program in the early primary grades. Perhaps you are going to institute uniforms. Or you are going to outsource payroll and HR functions. You have carefully selected the curriculum or the firm you are going use for the outsourcing. You understand what you are buying and what to expect. There is even a feeling of relief that the decision is made and the ball in motion.
What can go wrong? What must you guard against? Realistically what should you expect? For many of us making the decision is agonizing and we hope that, having spent time, energy and money on this decision, we can now move along to the next challenge. What more often happens is that now the real fun begins. Things don't work as we expect, the product is not as advertised, the faculty is slow to get on board and there is a moment when we think, "let's just go back to what we did before."
We could do that. Sometimes we even have to do that. But our leadership challenge and perhaps our personal challenge is to hang on and push further and find out if we can make this change work the way we expected. Often it is just when we want to give up that the momentum and the tweaking will make this change all we had hoped.
