Organizational Agility and Lasting Change
Recently I had the opportunity to chat with Chantal Brodrick, the brilliant voice behind the Fitness Business Podcast. Her and I chatted about a number of things including the work I am so grateful to get to do each day.
In the transcript below you will see a portion of our interview and my thoughts on change, and why for so many people and organizations change can be painful.
The Fitness Business Podcast; click below to listen to the whole interview.
Chantal :
Now, Lindsey, you actually, in your role within the industry, you help people and you help organizations enjoy transformational change. Can you explain to us what is the most common example of a major organizational change that a fitness facility might actually experience?
Lindsey :
Mm-hmm (affirmative), absolutely. Well, so transformational change, to me, doesn’t mean you have to be okay with it per se, but really grappling with this idea that we’re all in constant motion. The idea that things will be the same for any period of time is a myth, and that the more rooted in reality we are with an ideal plan, the more successful we can be.
So when I think about a lot of the … whether it’s the fitness organizations that sell equipment, or education, you know the clients that I work with, and also the health clubs that they serve, I think that change is the theme that we see the most, that people have a hard time confronting, because it’s such … Our consumers, today’s consumer, the fitness consumer that’s coming into the club, or even the club operator that’s consulting with an equipment provider, because of the digital era, and how fast things are changing, it’s really less about knowing the right answers. It’s more about being agile enough to open your mind to not knowing everything, but knowing the right questions to ask.
So in a lot of the work that I do, it’s focusing on agility, and how can health clubs, how can the people supporting our industry think about today’s consumer, and how their life is radically changing on a regular basis, and how to support that. So whether it’s systems implementation, to organize people within the club, whether it’s the companies implementing strategy to support what’s coming next.
I think what’s a big part of our health clubs is if I can order up, on Amazon Prime, all my groceries, and have them delivered, and that’s the consumer experience I have through Amazon, if my health club doesn’t have similar features and functions in the way that I check into the club, then there’s going to be a miss, and the consumers are going to start to lose faith in our industry if we’re not up with it.
Those kinds of changes are a lot of the things that I help fitness facilities think about, and then help providers also consider.
Agility, change and ability to adapt the cornerstone's of change management and what it can take to create lasting change for both companies and people.
What do you think, are you or your team undergoing a large change? What do you find the most difficult aspect of this process?
Lindsey Rainwater, also known as Lindsey RainH2O, is a sought-after business advisor, Founder, writer & keynote speaker to the fitness and wellness industry. For more information about Rainwater, follow her on Twitter @LindseyRainH2o