Column Judith Witte: Cold feet

As a running coach, I want to give the runners who train with me sessions that are varied and enjoyable. Repetition is good, but doing the exact same thing every time gets boring. So I try to surprise them again and again. Sometimes I get carried away with all kinds of crazy ideas. Then I hear the voice of the instructor from the Athletics Union in my head sighing: “And what exactly is the purpose of this exercise?” Oh right…! I think to myself. Back to the basics, back to the core business.

Packaging designers are exceptionally good at coming up with surprising wrappers. In doing so, they regularly lose sight of the real purpose of packaging: protecting the product during storage and transport. (And also that at some point it actually has to be opened. Simply because the user wants to use the scissors, gadget, or tongs—or actually eat the cheese, meat, and/or soup. It is a major consumer frustration, but that’s beside the point). Of course, food packaging must meet many more requirements than just protection. With the PPWR, even more requirements are being added. A lot will have to change. And quickly.

Change is difficult. Toine Timmermans (Together Against Food Waste) mentions vacuum-packed meat in bags as an example. Meat lasts longer this way and can be packaged more efficiently, it saves the producer money and the consumer wastes less product. It’s a win-win situation! But no. It still took ten years for the bag to make it into the refrigerated shelf. He points to cold feet in the market when it comes to changes of this scale. What if consumers don’t respond well to a different type of packaging?

In her book ‘Speed in change – 5 levers to prevent unnecessary trouble in organizational change’, Maaike Thiecke offers clear guidance for processes like these. The starting point is always answering the question: what problem is the change meant to solve? It helps to define what remains the same, even during change. What is your core business? Because change is not a goal in itself. She compares it to a speedboat that keeps circling in the same spot. ‘In motion, yes—but to what end?’

Cold feet can be overcome. The leap into the deep end is less frightening than it looks from a distance, believe me. Every week I take a swim in open water. At the first contact with the cold water, I invariably gasp for air. The cold feels like thousands of tiny needles against my skin. I ignore the pain, slide into the water, get my breathing under control, and find my rhythm. Later, once I am dressed warmly again, I feel reborn. Energized. Full of life. Exactly what I set out to achieve.

Judith Witte
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