Your organization is experiencing unprecedented change and the frequency of change (how often change occurs) and the pace of change (how quickly you are expected to change) are having a significant impact on you in your organization.
One significant impact is in your ability to interact and raise your visibility with colleagues. In statistics highlighted in a recent Fast Company article “The Four Year Career,” a United States worker’s median tenure in his or her current job is just 4.4 years. Concurrently and reported in a recent Wall Street Journal article, the average tenure of a Fortune 500 CEO is just 4.6 years. Regardless of the level in your organization, you and your colleagues are transitioning to new roles and organizations faster than ever before.
This frequency and pace of change is having a negative impact on your ability to interact and build relationships with colleagues. Networking is harder to do and less effective when colleagues and their roles change so frequently. Investing your time and energy connecting with others solely focused on networking means a lot of coffee and bagels. And before you know it, the person with whom you networked is no longer there. Any remnant of visibility that you had with this individual (along with your coffee and bagel) is gone.