(Musical key change.)

Not long ago I finished reading “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh. It’s a great yarn about how he created the powerhouse, Zappos.com.

There were a number of things that resonated with me in the book, as they relate to SilverFern, but the sentiment that still ranks the highest is his philosophy on change which I simply can’t improve upon.

“Part of being in a growing company is that change is constant. For some people, especially those who come from bigger companies, the constant change can be somewhat unsettling at first. If you are not prepared to deal with constant change, then you probably are not a good fit for the company.

We must all learn not only to not fear change, but to embrace it enthusiastically and, perhaps even more important[ly], encourage and drive it. We must always plan for and be prepared for constant change.

Although change can and will come from all directions, it’s important that most of the changes in the company are driven from the bottom up – from the people who are on the front lines, closer to the customers and/or issues.

Never accept or be too comfortable with the status quo, because the companies that get into trouble are historically the ones that aren’t able to adapt to change and respond quickly enough.

We are ever evolving. If we want to continue to stay ahead of our competition, we must continually change and keep them guessing. Others can copy our images, our shipping, and the overall look of our Web site, but they cannot copy our people, our culture, or our service. And they will not be able to evolve as fast as we can as long as embracing constant change is part of our culture.

Ask yourself: How do you plan and prepare for change? Do you view new challenges optimistically? Do you encourage and drive change? How do you encourage more change to be driven from the bottom up?

Are you empowering your direct reports to drive change?

”