Burning platform

Disciplines > Change Management > Creating change > Burning platform

Method | Example | Discussion | See also

Method

Show how staying where you are is not an option, and that doing nothing will result in disaster.

Look for a crisis that you can highlight. They are often lurking nearby, forlorn and unnoticed.

You can also engineer your own crisis that forces change.

Example

A company floats off a slow backwater division, forcing it to compete without the shelter of the parent company.

An organization educates its workforce in business finance and shows its dire financial situation.

Discussion

When the oil platform Piper Alpha in the North Sea caught fire, a worker was trapped by the fire on the edge of the platform. Rather than certain death in the fire, he chose probable death by jumping 100 feet into the freezing sea.

The term 'burning platform' is now used to describe a situation where people are forced to act by dint of the alternative being somewhat worse. The crisis may already exist and just needs to be highlighted.