This Crazy Period of Constant Change is Normal
"Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely."
In the middle of a meeting with a few colleagues I caught myself
saying, "Once we get through this crazy period and things get
back to normal..." Then it hit me. I had been saying something
like that for at least a year or two. As we scrambled to move
into a strong market leadership position we were initiating
endless waves of changes and (we hoped) improvements throughout
the organization. I interrupted myself with the question, "Do we
seem to be consistently talking about change as if it's a
temporary condition to be endured until calmer times return?"
"Yeah, it's as if we're battening down the hatches and waiting
out the storm."
"But", another colleague observed, "We've got to learn how to
work in the driving rain and high seas because things aren't
going to slow down unless we scale back on our vision, goals,
and rate of growth."
"And that could be deadly in today's fast moving market."
"We'd be following and trying to keep up rather than leading and
setting the pace."
The discussion went on to mark a turning point for many of us.
We began to realize we needed to accept that our frenzied pace
of change was the new "normal." Then we had to do a better job
of helping others in our company understand why that was the
case and become energized by the exciting possibilities offered
by the changes.
The Change Paradox: Same Tune, Frantic New Beat
"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs,
it's just possible that you haven't grasped the situation." --
Jean Kerr, American playwright
In what time periods do you think the following statements were
made (extra bonus points if you can identify the speakers as
well)?
1. "A new factor, that of rapid change, has come into the world.
We have not yet learned how to adjust ourselves to its economic
and social consequences."
2. "The world is too big for us. There is too much doing, too
many crimes, casualties, violence, and excitements. Try as you
will, you get behind the race despite yourself. It is an
incessant strain to keep pace and still you lose ground. Science
empties its discoveries on you so fast that you stagger beneath
them in hopeless bewilderment. The political world witnesses new
scenes so rapidly that you are out of breath trying to keep up
with them."
3. "All is flux, nothing stays still."
Sound familiar? These remarks could have been said last week
couldn't they? Certainly, they might have been uttered within
the last decade. The first comment was written in the page of
Harvard Business Review by Wallace Donham in 1932. The second
one comes from the Atlantic Journal in 1837. The last remark was
made by the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, five hundred years
before the birth of Christ.
So down through the centuries many people believed they were
living in times of rapid change. Speaking at a planning
conference, author, researcher, and professor Warren Bennis
said, "I can't recall a period of time that was as volatile,
complex, ambiguous and tumultuous." He then quoted Jack Welch,
CEO of General Electric, "If you're not confused, you don't know
what's going on." See, you do know what's going on!
Futurists like Alvin Toffler show that we're now in a period of
unusually rapid, and significant change. In his book,
Powershift, he provides powerful arguments to show that the
period of time from the mid fifties until about the year 2025 is
one of those extremely rare pivotal moments in the centuries of
earth's history where everything about the way our world works
radically shifts. He calls it a "hinge of history." And, he's
found, "what is emerging is a radical new economic system
running at far faster speeds than any in history."
So things will settle into a more predictable and calm pace
about the time most of us are long gone from our work...or long
gone!