Although thirty years after the writing of Innovation and Entrepreneurship<\/em> the entrepreneurial society does not formally exist\u2014the prospect of one still fires the imagination.\u00a0 As many on this Board have elegantly noted\u2014ideas from the book continue to influence thinking and action.\u00a0 One such idea\u2014and one of special interest here\u2014concerns the role of change in the entrepreneurial society.<\/p>\n I imagine the entrepreneurial society as a vibrant place in which entrepreneurial leaders in government entities, commercial organizations, and not-for-profit institutions work together to \u201c\u2026make innovation and entrepreneurship a normal, ongoing and everyday activity\u2026.\u201d[1] . Because of this, the entrepreneurial society is also a place of continuous change\u2014and therein lays the rub.\u00a0 Continuous change is something that organizations find extremely difficult to do [2].<\/p>\n How does continuous change unfold in the entrepreneurial society?\u00a0 More importantly what, if anything, can the entrepreneurial society teach today\u2019s organizations\u2019 about continuous change?\u00a0 The following sections explore this question by examining Drucker\u2019s perspectives on \u201cthe nature of change\u201d and on \u201cthe nature of change leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Nature of Change<\/em><\/p>\n On one hand, Innovation and Entrepreneurship <\/em>is not a book about organizational change\u2014at least in the usual sense.\u00a0 However, it is all about change\u2014because change triggers the opportunity for \u201csystematic innovation.\u201d\u00a0 In Drucker\u2019s words:<\/p>\n Systematic innovation therefore consists of the purposeful and organized search for changes, and in the systematic analysis of the opportunities such changes might offer for economic or social innovation [1](p. 35).<\/p>\n The \u201cchanges\u201d referenced above flow from a unique perspective on the nature of change\u2014and one very different from the orthodoxy of the field of organizational change.<\/p>\n To Drucker, change is not something an organization occasionally does to align itself better with its market.\u00a0 The need for continuous change is an immutable force of history arising from a particular kind of entropy\u2014the entropy of the \u201cartifacts\u201d of humans.\u00a0 In Drucker\u2019s words:\u00a0 \u201c\u2026we also know that theories, values, and all the artifacts of human minds and human hands do age and rigidify, becoming obsolete\u2026.\u201d[1] (p. 254).\u00a0 Because everything created by humans inevitably becomes obsolete, opportunities for innovation are constantly presenting themselves in organizations and societies.\u00a0 It is the job of the entrepreneur to recognize this ongoing obsolescence and use it as an opportunity for innovation.<\/p>\n This notion of change arising from obsolescence is a very different perspective than that of the organizational change community\u2014at least in the US.\u00a0 In that community, the need for change arises primarily from shifts in the market.\u00a0 When the market shifts in a significant way, so too must the organization to remain viable. \u00a0The focus is not on innovation but quick reaction.<\/p>\n This difference in perspectives is important for several reasons, but a key one is that the perspective in Innovation and Entrepreneurship<\/em> is proactive while the perspective of the change community is reactive.\u00a0 In the entrepreneurial society:\u00a0 \u201c\u2026the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.\u201d[1] (p.28).\u00a0 In the change community, organizations wait for market changes and focus resources on trying to anticipate better and predict these changes.<\/p>\n One lesson from the entrepreneurial society is that using continuous change for innovation demands a more proactive stance–constantly seeking change and acting on opportunities.\u00a0 This proactive stance by entrepreneurial change leaders might lead the market instead of following it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Nature of Change Leadership<\/em><\/p>\n In the entrepreneurial society, leadership is all.\u00a0 It, therefore, requires a process for creating and reinforcing entrepreneurial leadership across both the leadership corps and the workforce.\u00a0 In the section entitled, \u201centrepreneurial practices\u201d[1] (p. 155).\u00a0 Drucker makes three recommendations for accomplishing this.\u00a0 The first one is \u201cfocusing managerial vision on opportunity\u201d [1] (p.155). This practice assures that managers are not only focused on problems but also on successes\u2014on understanding what is working better than expected and why. \u00a0As an aside, this focus on success has recently been highlighted by neuroscientists as a key factor in brain performance. [3].<\/p>\n The second practice is \u201cgenerating an entrepreneurial spirit among the entire management group.\u201d[1] (p. 157).\u00a0 This practice focuses the entire leadership corps on \u201cunits that do better and do differently\u201d[1] (p. 157) and ensures that learning from the highest performing parts of the organization is shared organization-wide.\u00a0 This practice also unites the leadership corps and contributes to creating an entrepreneurial culture.<\/p>\n The third practice is \u201csystemically listening to and interacting with the workforce.\u201d In this, senior leaders listen to and engage members of the workforce in discussions about opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurialism.\u00a0 Leaders not only draw out the best ideas of the workforce\u2014but actively engage them as fellow entrepreneurs. Recent research has highlighted this approach as a critical factor in increasing employee engagement and decreasing resistance to change [4].\u00a0 The alignment of the workforce with the leadership corps is a major step in creating the entrepreneurial culture.<\/p>\n Historically, the change community has viewed the leadership of change very differently.\u00a0 Change leaders\u2014or change agents\u2014are not focused on discovering opportunities for innovative change but on leading change efforts initiated by someone else.\u00a0 In the context of large-scale change, for example, these leaders focus on topics like the cost, schedule, and performance of change efforts.\u00a0 Their function can be as much administrative as entrepreneurial.<\/p>\n Another lesson for change from the entrepreneurial society is that change leadership has little to do with administrative chores and much to do with continuously searching for opportunities for innovation\u2014and putting these in motion.\u00a0 Because the entire leadership corps and the workforce are united in this, continuous change can fuel innovation across the organization.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Innovation and Entrepreneurship<\/em> has been largely ignored by the change community in the US and potential lessons missed.\u00a0 Even so, I believe several ideas are worth considering by today\u2019s change leaders.\u00a0 First, perspective matters.<\/em>\u00a0 A review of the change literature reveals that many change scholars are \u201cadmiring the problem too much.\u201d\u00a0 Much is said about difficulties arising from increases in the volume and complexity of change but little about how to use this situation for advantage.\u00a0 The entrepreneurial leader\u2019s perspective is that continuous change is fuel for continuous innovation.<\/p>\n Second, leadership matters<\/em>.\u00a0 Entrepreneurial leaders are not \u201cfast followers\u201d of change and innovation but initiators of them.\u00a0 They consider risk but are not captured by it.<\/p>\n Finally, culture matters<\/em>.\u00a0 Continuous change affects an organization as a system\u2014and affects different parts of the system differently. \u00a0Organizations must, therefore, respond to changes effectively and creatively.\u00a0 To accomplish this, the leadership corps\u2014and the workforce of the organization\u2014must be united in common purpose:\u00a0 to find change and use it for innovation.<\/p>\n Thirty years after its publication, Innovation and Entrepreneurship<\/em> challenges us to see change with better eyes.\u00a0 Continuous change is not a problem to be solved, but fuel for continuous innovation<\/p>\n <\/p>\n About the author:<\/strong><\/p>\n Walter McFarland is the founder of Windmill Human Performance and co-author of Choosing Change.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although thirty years after the writing of Innovation and Entrepreneurship the entrepreneurial society does not formally exist\u2014the prospect of one<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[141,162],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1308"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1334,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions\/1334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n