Long time back I happened to read a book called The Empty Raincoat by Charles Handy. Here I share with you a thought from the book – “An ‘S’ shaped curve” called sigmoid curve. Sigmoid curve epitomizes the story of product life cycle, organization’s life and even our own lives. We start with faltering steps before rising to the heights and then the downfall.
Secret of sustained success lies in ensuring a series of successive sigmoid curves even before the earlier ones fade out. Organizations that sustain their performance over long periods have managed to put themselves on to the second sigmoid when they were at point A along the first sigmoid. The unequivocal message from the curve is that organizations require leaders who when at point A can see the future and embark on the change programme to take the organization on to the second sigmoid curve.
Those few organizations that have the foresight to move on to the second sigmoid have to face challenging time depicted by the entrapped area between the two curves. This typically is the period when change is actually happening. There is change in all related facets of organizational life be it leadership, strategy, culture or technology. This is where the implementation capability and discipline of execution of leadership comes to the fore.
Though most of the times it is only at point B that leaders see the urgency to change and by then it usually is too late.
I found this curve to be a great leadership lesson and have seen it happen in organizations some of whom made it to point C and many others to B. Personally too, I found this curve an inspiration to focus on my long term goals and take on the second curve at the right time to reach there.
