Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

If you've ever studied business history, you've learned that one of the greatest obstacles to a company being successful over a long period of time is its past and current successes. They not only didn't feel that change wasn't needed, but that change didn't matter as they revelled in their current success. The thought that they are unbeatable has entered into the minds of numerous huge companies throughout the years.

In reality, what they really are is more of a prisoner of those successes.

Now what is the antidote to this trap?

The answer to that isn't as hard as it seems. It is that we cannot in any way fall in love with the idea that has worked in the past or is working right now. That, above anything else, is the cause of a company's downfall.

When you're in a position where you or a team has made a major contribution to what is bringing great success, you have an emotional attachment to the product or process. This is a mistake.

There's nothing wrong with being happy about contributing to a great success, but there is a problem when it goes beyond that to emotional attachment. And this does happen all the time.

The way to measure this as a manager is whether you look more at the past or present versus the future in reference to the particular issue at hand.

We can learn from the past, make sure what we are currently doing is the best we can do at the time and look at how we can make it better in the future. That's the healthy way to look at an overall company, division, department, product or service.