Is evolutionary change or revolutionary change the best when it comes to improving the process at your company to find, win and keep customers? Is it better to bring in outside solutions or is there untapped potential inside your organization? Are there dangers to revolutionizing your organization? Hidden benefits to tapping existing resources?
Sometimes when you orchestrate and release hidden talent in your organization, evolution turns into a revolution. The story of women in the workforce during WWII shows what can happen.
As more men enlisted in the armed forces during World War Two, many women entered the civilian workforce to take their place. They took on roles never before available to women as welders, machinists, and mechanics. Eventually over six million women held factory jobs, three-hundred and ten thousand in the aircraft industry alone, many of them in California.
Here is the story of one woman, Anna Lorraine Pantages, who lived right here on the Peninsula. Anna grew up in Los Altos, CA and graduated from Mountain View High in 1941. When WWII broke out, she was working at the Woolworth store in Palo Alto. She attended “The Peninsula Defense Training Center”, one of the many schools that were set up to train potential workers in the war effort.
An engineer from Hendy Iron Works in Sunnyvale, CA came through the class, admired her work as a draftsman, and hired her to come to the Iron Works. Once the contract at Hendy’s was completed, Anna went on to work in Redwood City at National Motor Bearing Company, also as a draftsman. She continued her education at Stanford in their Engineering Science and Management War Training Course.
Anna, her sister and brother also played music for dances at the local USO’s during the war. Anna played the accordian, her sister the Bass Viola, and her brother the Saxophone!
After the war Anna met George Pantages whom she married. They ran a pharmacy together for many years.
Anna and the millions of other women played a vital role in the ability of the U.S. to quickly manufacture the planes, ships, and armament that made Allied victory possible. These women were a previously untapped potential in the American economy. Without intending to, the evolutionary change of individual women like Anna making the decision to work in a factory revolutionized not only war production, it permanently changed the role of women in our culture.
Many companies are in a similar situation. They have untapped potential in their organization, including their sales and marketing departments.
Here’s an example. Let’s say your sales group has someone who is a great closer, another who is the acknowledged best at prospecting, and another who puts together great product demonstrations. By collecting their knowledge and incorporating it into standard practice and training, your sales process across the company will improve. This change didn’t require going outside the company for new ideas, software or training. It simply captured what you collectively already know and put it to work for everyone.
By tapping your existing potential and making evolutionary changes, you can incrementally improve your marketing and sales results.
And over time, the accumulation of evolutionary change can become a revolution.
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