These tadpoles will change. They have no choice
As individuals and organisations we do have a choice to change. The research says that we choose change when there is both a stimulus and a belief that we have the capability to change.
Both factors act against a natural tendency to remain in the status quo.
Compelling Pressure on Private Client Firms?
Professional Service firms in general have enjoyed a long period of stability. The way expertise is delivered has not changed significantly, it remains a function of time and professional excellence.
Some will point to the adoption of technology as evidence of change but that adoption has tended to support the existing processes and services rather than transformed them.
Are circumstances changing?
Whilst Covid had profound impacts on all our lives, it did not lead immediately to wholesale radical change within professional services firms. Of course there was a wider adoption of video and remote working but services are still based on expert people providing similar services to their clients.
If, as our tadpoles change into frogs, we were to place those frogs in a pan of cold water they would be quite content. As that pan gradually heated up the unfortunate frogs would fail to detect the change in their circumstance until it was too late.
Are private client services in danger of reacting like the unfortunate frogs? The temperature is increasing quickly as the following pressures impact:
Talent Crunch increases the competition for and cost of human talent
Consolidation forces firms to consider their competitive positions
Technology increase the opportunity to use digital workers to augment humans
These three pressures combine to create a unique and compelling change imperative.
Not all change is the same
Change does not have to be disruptive to be effective. In You can’t tell me to change, we examine the emotional aspect of successful change. A factor in reducing resistance to change is minimising disruption to people’s routines.
Rather than change that creates wholesale, often disruptive change, progressive changes that deliver results quickly create less resistance. We use the term “small steps for quick wins” to describe this approach to change
Examples of small steps for quick wins in context of the compelling pressure highlighted above would be:
- Recognising that 10 – 20% of human capacity is invested in tasks that are readily automatable. Professional firms could quickly increase their human capacity by addressing this opportunity
- Taking a deliberate approach to the opportunity and threat presented by consolidation. All firms could decide to embrace consolidation (and seek to maximise their valuation) or embrace independence (and double down on what makes independence viable)
- Technology is not, in reality, a short term threat to jobs. Advanced technology can, in effect, be introduced into existing processes in ways that add tangible value to human colleagues.
In each of these cases firms can easily take positive, immediate term actions to embrace the opportunity to respond to changing circumstances.
WBT is well positioned to help firms navigate changing circumstances. We are always happy to have a conversation