Learn to Preserve Your Core While Stimulating Change—or Risk Obsolescence
On the surface, IBM looked unshakable—committed to formal dress codes and mainframe computers. But underneath, cracks appeared. When the world changed, IBM struggled, mistaking old routines for their real core beliefs. After tough times, they realized that their true strength was in putting customers and employees first—not in navy suits or any particular product line.
Contrast this with organizations like HP and Merck, which make deliberate efforts to clarify the difference between what’s sacred and what’s flexible. When market shifts required change, they reviewed everything: values stayed rock-solid, but strategies, rules, and even favorite traditions got challenged and sometimes retired. Merck gave away medicine for free, sticking to its core, but radically changed how it did business. This discipline—preserving the core while stimulating progress—is what behavioral psychologists call adaptive stability.
Organizations and individuals who master this distinction are able to renew themselves again and again, never losing their identity, yet changing fast enough to stay ahead. It’s not easy—it demands regular reflection and willingness to let go of comfortable habits. But that’s what allows the truly exceptional to last.
Set aside half an hour this week to sit down with your group and have a candid talk: what do we stand for no matter what? Then, look at your routines or behaviors—maybe that weekly pizza night that’s lost its spark, or meeting agendas that have grown stale. Pick one to change, brainstorm a fresh approach, and try it out together. If it works, keep it. If not, go back and try another tweak. The important thing is practice: knowing the difference between your anchor values and everything else gives you the freedom to experiment with confidence.
What You'll Achieve
Develop confidence and adaptability by preserving essential values while staying flexible in how you work, learn, and communicate. Avoid stagnation and keep your group relevant and strong.
Separate What's Sacred From What Must Change
Review your team’s foundational beliefs.
Gather your team (or family) and list out what you'd never want to lose, even as everything else changes.
Identify routines or rules that might be outdated.
Look for patterns, traditions, or processes that aren't core values but have hung around out of habit. Challenge each one: is this still serving us?
Plan a deliberate experiment in one area.
Pick a nonessential routine to update or replace. Set clear criteria for success, gather feedback, and decide if the new way is better.
Reflection Questions
- Which traditions or routines are truly essential, and which are just habits?
- How do I respond when something I love needs to change?
- Have I ever held onto something too long, mistaking it for a core value?
- What have I learned when I allowed experimentation and change?
- How can I help others in my group distinguish core from noncore?
Personalization Tips
- A school club keeps its value of fairness but swaps its meeting format from in-person to virtual to include more voices.
- A company retains its commitment to customer service but updates its reward system to reflect new behaviors.
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Good to Great, 2)
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