There are only two circumstances which require replacement: the very successful one or the very unsuccessful one.

What a pleasure it is to take over a job from someone who has been very successful.

You could say it is like taking over a “successful pair of boots.” It is easy. You just step in the boots but you don’t walk.

People may say this is wrong, because you are supposed to “start out in a new direction on your own,” or you are supposed to “put your own personality on the job.”

No! The correct action to take is to put on the boots, but don’t walk! If someone was just promoted from the area, then it must have been in a good condition, so you don’t change anything.

You know immediately that all of the pressure points in the organization are going to come to you at once. By pressure points we mean the people or things that can influence your thoughts and behavior and put pressure on you to do something.

The person who had the position before you had all these same pressure points, but he must have resisted them successfully because they still exist.

So, if somebody wants you to sign something that the person who held the job before you didn’t sign—just don’t sign it. That’s an easy rule to follow.

This is the laziest position that anybody could ever occupy. And that’s the only way it can be occupied—with total laziness. Don’t do anything!

What you must do however, is keep your eyes open, learn exactly how to do the job, and depending on how big the organization is, after a certain time, find out how it is running and run it using the Normal Condition.

As part of the Normal Condition, go around and search around and find out what made it a little bit better that week and strengthen that.

Also find out what worsened a little bit and take that out. Just search around to find these things.

By the time you are done, you will be so familiar with the way things work, you will know everybody by their first and last names, you will know where all the papers are and you will even know the favorite things people try to avoid. In this way, the organization will just keep on moving up. It will move ahead very successfully.

Go through the exact same set of actions every day that the person who used to hold the job went through. Sign nothing that he wouldn’t sign. Don’t change a single order. Look through the papers that have been sent out as these are the orders that already exist. Then get very busy getting people to follow those orders. In this way the organization will increase and increase and increase and increase.

The most important point of the Power Change Condition is to study the organization. Study the exact rules and the way things are done. Don’t send out any orders that are not routine (normal or part of regular procedures). Change nothing. Don’t try out new ideas. Write up fully what the person who just left was doing. Mainly observe the job that you have just taken over. Learn the new job before doing anything.

You take over a new job or a collapsed job by following the Non-Existence Formula. But when you take over a successful job you use the Power Change Formula.

Power Change Formula

The formula of the Power Change Condition is:

When taking over a new job change nothing until you are completely familiar with your new area of power.