| | December 20198CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONBy Elaine Pulakos, CEO, PDRIHOW COMPANY STABILITY DRIVES AGILITYDisruptive change fueled by technology is creating unprecedented competitive threat. No one is immune. Microsoft and Dell got surprised by mobile. Uber and Lyft's mobility services threaten the automobile industry. Netflix's hyper-competitive streaming services that aided in the demise of brick-and-mortar video stores are now threatened by deep-pocketed Disney undercutting with lower-priced streaming and massive kid friendly content that trumps what Netflix can offer.Surviving hyper-competition requires relentless innovation. The mantra of the day is Driving Change ­ and companies are rushing to restructure into agile teams, stand up new projects, and reinvent their cultures ­ all to power innovation and gain competitive edge. But there's virtually no evidence backing up the idea that these changes will yield the agility that's needed to achieve competitive success today. In fact, new research suggests that the opposite is true. Studying over 350 companies across the globe, our team took a close look at what factors are currently most important in driving competitive success. High among these, organizational stability emerged as a top driver. Remarkably, companies with high stability deliver 150% to 500% better business results (e.g., higher profitability) than low stability companies. Beyond Driving Change, then, what we need to be doing is Driving Stability. Our research shows that when we constantly drive change into already disruptively changing work environments, we create even more destabilizing, distracting, and chaotic situations for individuals and teams that undermine both innovation and performance. There's no question that companies need to build environments that will spark innovation and competitive success but this won't happen by driving unrelenting, unbridled change. Instead, our research clearly shows that companies need to counter-balance inherently destabilizing competitive environments with stability.
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