Marshall Goldsmith’s Wheel Of Change: A Framework For Smarter Resource Allocation

Change is inevitable. As the pace of change increases, a major challenge for leaders is deciding what to change, what to keep and where best to devote resources.

We have been thinking about the Wheel of Change as a model for many years. Our latest version (modified from MG’s No. 1 bestseller, Triggers) focuses on four elements:

Create. Build. Maintain. Let Go. The wheel reflects two dimensions. The first is investment—from lower investment to higher investment. The second is change—from keeping what we have to changing what we have.

The Challenges

These two dimensions produce four very different leadership challenges.

Create is high change and high investment. We are starting something new: a product, technology, market, capability or even a new way of doing business. Creation requires experimentation, courage and resources. There is no guarantee it will work. It will not “make our number” today. It is key for tomorrow.

Build is high investment with more emphasis on keeping and expanding something that is already working. We have moved beyond the experiment. Now we want to scale. We invest in people, systems, distribution, technology and infrastructure. The question changes from “Can this work?” to “How big can this become?”

Maintain involves less change and typically less incremental investment. This does not mean neglect. Some of the most important parts of an organization need to be maintained for decades. Great brands, cultures, customer relationships and successful businesses require stewardship. The challenge is to preserve what is valuable without confusing preservation with progress.

Finally, Let Go combines change with lower investment. Something that made sense in the past may no longer make sense in the future. It may be a product, business, process, technology, office, meeting or tradition. Many products or services that worked well yesterday will be obsolete tomorrow.

The CEO’s Challenge

The power of the Wheel of Change becomes clearer when we recognize that a corporation is never at just one place on the wheel.

At the same moment, one part of your company may need to create, another may need to build, another may need to maintain and another may need to let go.

This is where resource allocation becomes critical.

The Opportunities

Too often, organizations invest according to history rather than opportunity. Mature businesses continue receiving resources because they have always received resources. Legacy activities survive because people are emotionally attached to them. Promising new ideas may be starved because their results are not yet proven.

The Wheel of Change gives leaders a simple way to challenge this thinking.

Look at your products, businesses, technologies, processes and even organizational practices. Ask four questions:

What should we create? What should we build? What should we maintain? What should we let go?

Then ask the harder question: Does our investment match our answer?

The Outcome

The wheel never stops turning. What we create today may be something we build tomorrow. What we build may eventually become something we maintain. And what we maintain successfully for many years may someday be something we need to let go.

Then we create again.

Great leadership is not about changing everything or preserving everything. It is about having the wisdom and courage to know where you are on the wheel and what the moment requires.