This is long but worth the read

Colleagues,

My wife, Pam, loves cottage cheese with fresh summer tomatoes. And, as she bounces back from her kidney stone ordeal, she’s trying to increase her protein intake, so she’s been eating more cottage cheese than she used to.

Yesterday at the grocery store, they were out of cottage cheese. What? How?

Apparently, a couple prominent podcasts have been promoting research about women and protein and the benefits of cottage cheese. The research has been picked up by “influencers” (am I the only one that despises that term? 🤔) and now cottage cheese is blowing up on social media.

Hence, a cottage cheese shortage.

Now, imagine you lead one of the cottages that makes the cheese (🤣).

You are now behind and you need to make a bunch of changes to increase production.

There was no way to see this coming. It just happened, and now the way you have built your cottage isn’t working.

I think we are in a time where this has already happened to so many “cottages”, like:

• Schools
• Social services
• Non-profits
• Many businesses

The political, economic, social, technological, and spiritual turmoil have disrupted our organizations. And there is no sign of things settling down.

The cottage cheese makers could not have predicted this. And you and I likely cannot predict the next thing that will disrupt our business/school/service agency.

The only thing we can know for sure is that something will happen.

How do leaders prepare for this?

I have an idea, but it’s not an answer. Before I share it, I’d love to hear what you think. Just hit reply and type a sentence telling me how leaders can prepare for all this change.

Cheers!

Frederick