If you think change is hard, try being irrelevant.
On July 18th, the second largest US bookstore chain announced that it was…finished. On the people side, an additional 11,000 will soon be out of work. On the business side- 6.9 million sq ft of retail space will be vacated.
Blame it on the economy? Oh, how we love to blame (classic victim behavior), but in this case…I don’t think so.
People are still buying books- LOTS of them.
The thing is, the global paradigm changed. We now have Kindles (have it instantly), we order online (have it in two days with free shipping), or we go to the largest US bookstore chain for an experience (it being much more than just a big bookstore).
Some hung onto the old paradigm, choosing to ignore or deny the present reality. (Just change the end cap displays, run another sale, offer 25% off on new releases, blah, blah, blah…)
Hanging onto old ways of thinking about human performance (HU) is equally dangerous. (Just do more safety training, require workers to carry their HU ‘tools’ with them, increase the number of management observations, blah, blah, blah…)
As an example, there is at least one major industry in the US currently being ‘hammered’ by the regulator and its industry-funded oversight organization for observed “cross-cutting” issues in human performance.
Hopefully, the leaders of this industry will soon realize that the old paradigm, the old-school approach of, ”top-down-do-this-because-I-said-so-because-I’m-the-boss” no longer works.
Doing ‘more of the same’ and then blaming the fact that the world has changed around us is insane. When the tide is falling, you better change how your boat is lashed to the dock!
Comments?
For freedom from error,
-Tim
