There is a great deal of fear in many strata of management today.  This is not new but it can eventually kill an organization.  More than half of the companies praised by the best-seller In Search of Excellence faltered, or failed within just a few years of its publication in the early 1980s.  In 1995, the average age of a company in the UK was just 12.3 years and only 10% of companies were more than 32 years old.  Of companies formed in 1991, only 49% were remaining in existence four years later.  About 40% of the companies that comprised the Fortune 500 a decade ago no longer exist.  The recent trends and fads of downsizing and re-engineering have proved to be almost completely dehumanising processes which have produced little long-term benefit either to the organization or to its people.  Within organizations, it is becoming evident that in the future it will not be possible to operate through power and bureaucratic structures.  Management's ability to effect significant improvements through piecemeal changes and short-term adjustments to the system is also declining.  The environment which reliably rewards decisiveness and action as opposed to understanding and reflection is dissipating.  With insistent new societal pressures growing, tomorrow's successful companies will be those that embrace new ways of being today.

But so many executives are "too busy" to hear this message, often because they are afraid that if they stop, even for a moment, they will lose control.  The "I'm too busy" syndrome not only stifles communication in the workplace but it can also stunt the health-ful development of relationships at home.  There aren't many people who have been heard to say on their deathbed: "Oh God, I wish I'd spent more time at the office."

There is now a greater need for feeling, rather than managing change, for learning how to 'be' with the change as opposed to constantly striving to keep up with it.