She was considered among Napoléon’s major opponents and spent much of her life in exile. When I came across Madame de Stael’s quote, I was struck by the genius of it. “Progress in spirals” just seems like such an accurate description of many initiatives undertaken in business today. Often the changes we must deal with are driven by events, projects, or initiatives that require major alterations to infrastructure, process, procedure, culture, and technology.
“THE HUMAN MIND ALWAYS MAKES PROGRESS, BUT IT https://lastdatabase.com/ IS A PROGRESS IN SPIRALS.” —MADAME DE STAEL The intention of these initiatives is typically to make some kind of “progress.” We look to produce results that improve market share, profitability, margins, quality, the customer experience, efficiency, sales … the list goes on and on. The challenge I see often is that the expectations of these activities are viewed in a linear fashion.
Expectations are organized around a strict relationship between inputs and outputs. A strong and optimistic belief is adopted; if we do X, then Y will follow. We work hard to “see” the future outcomes of our various initiatives and the “progress” that will be enjoyed as a result of our expertise, creativity, energy, and hard work. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out this way.