Adapting to cope with change
Association of Financial Advisers chief executive, Brad Fox, argues that planners will need to become increasingly adaptive to cope with the rapid rate of change occurring in the industry.
Financial advisers, advice practices, and licensees may have to give up part of what has made them successful if they are to continue to grow and achieve future success. This is why, as an association, we have adopted a new focus on adaptive change for the year ahead.
The adaptive change model describes environments where market participants need to collaborate to invent the future using a combination of the best practices from today blended with the best thinking about what will succeed in the future.
Yes, it's a mouthful — and, believe it or not, it's also often easier said than done. Because to adapt is to ask a person to give up a part of themselves; to let go of something that has worked for them in the past, something that was important in getting them to their previous success. Obviously, this can be difficult, and we recognise that the resistance to making change is not a function of people not understanding the need to adapt, rather it is because the change that is needed threatens something that is an important part of who they are; it can threaten their identity.
Adaptive change requires people to challenge their beliefs and ways of thinking. In the case of financial advisers, to question the effectiveness of continuing to do the same things in the same way they always have, when the paradigms for financial advice have changed.
Resistance is to be expected — the most difficult challenge for anyone is to ask them to be willing to let go of some of the things that made them successful up until now.
That's the challenging news. The better news is that financial advice is being reinvented — the best of today is being blended with the best for the future. As a profession, we are at our finest when we are open to originality and creativity. AFA members are known for their passion, engagement and collaboration, and there has never been a better environment for adviser-led originality, intellectual curiosity and new insights for providing life-changing financial advice to more Australians.
More financial advice is desperately needed in Australia and there are signs that advisers, licensees and advice businesses are beginning to adapt to meet those needs and the increased community expectations. The speed at which financial advice can adapt is ultimately decided by today's advisers and their willingness to experiment, to try things and to change. So, despite the resistance to change being felt by some advisers, others are wholeheartedly embracing the opportunities and are seeing this point in time as the most exciting pivot-point for financial advice that they have ever experienced.
But what exactly will need to change? Is it technology, the client segments advisers work with, the process of giving advice or the combination of coaching, counselling and technical knowledge that makes up their entire advice proposition? Is it all of these things and more?"
The AFA will encourage our members through our communities of practice — Practitioners; Genxt; Inspire and Leaders Forum — to make a collaborative effort to interpret the market and experiment with various solutions to discover the best ways forward.
Financial advisers, advice practices and licensees will need to be prepared to let go of what has made them successful if they are to continue to achieve future success. As an association, we will do it together.
Brad Fox is the chief executive of the Association of Financial Advisers.
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