Managing Growth and Change by Managing Diversity and MultiGenerational Issues at Work

In any organization, law firm, government entity or non-profit, growth should be the number one goal. Otherwise, why would your entity exist? If you are not growing, then you are stagnating and your brand is becoming washed up, irrelevant and unrecognizable to those you want to serve.

The real issue then becomes leading (instead of managing) change and transformation. Why? Without change and transformation there is no growth. With it, your entity can grow by utilizing your diverse employee pool and having multiple generations work well together to sustain this growth in a healthy way.

I remember all my years as a lawyer in corporate America. Every organization I worked for, including the federal government, was a fan of growth and wanted it. Not many wanted to deal with any change that leads to this growth. It was too much and too hard. We are creatures of comfort and habit. It helps to keep our anxiety in check and our fears at bay.

I know this too well. In the span of two months, my entire company brand got an overhaul AND we moved our home. There is so much change around me, it’s overwhelming for sure. Some days, I miss the way things were- they were easy and predictable. And that’s coming from me, the change expert.

So what’s an organization to do? The solution is simple, and not always easy.

It’s a change in mindset that has to happen and that’s all that’s needed- will your organization’s leadership be willing to envision growth and change and embrace them both AND do the legwork necessary to harness employees well to achieve that growth.

If your organization is not willing to choose a new perspective and choose to see things differently, then there is no growth possible. That also means that there’s no way that diversity and multigenerational employees are well utilized.
If you can’t start by seeing things differently, then odds are that your organization will also never see the value of diverse and multigenerational employees. Different is different and change is change. If you can’t embrace change, then you can’t embrace differences in your employee pool either.

I look at an organization I just hired to do a major chunk of work for our company. This organization had a very specific speciality, which is why we hired them. However, I was very clear in letting them know that we were a bit different than other organizations they had worked with and were they ok with that. They all said yes, but from the process, I could tell they were very myopic and doing things the same old way, even though I was a different client. How did I know? Because every time we hit a challenge, they would say, “We don’t know how to proceed. Our other clients never had this issue.” Of course, your other clients didn’t have this issue, because we are different. So are you willing to choose to see things differently and do it different- really, do you want more clients like me or not?

What does this mean for you and your organization? Stop and ask yourself:

-How flexible is your organization around change?
-Do you have an intentional and measurable growth plan that fully evaluates ALL your employees for their strengths?

Call or email with any questions you may have. Also feel free to download my guide on change and growth.