Change affects everything in this world, yet we don’t give it the attention it deserves, or even recognize that it needs to be taken into account when deciding so much of what we do.
We often fail to identify it as the reason something works or it doesn’t. After all, change is too hard to pin down. It’s too vague. How does one describe what change looks like until after it has already come through? We want simple, tangible, predictable reasons for why things unfold the way they do. Or, we choose simple, tangible, predictable actions to prevent it from happening. We want control over it. What a bunch of twits.
Change is unstoppable. Change is part of our humanity. It is a slow and constant evolution. It is fluid. Change is something we have to deal with at one point or another. Change works like osmosis, releasing transitional or transformative events based on the build up of something that wants to move somewhere else. Why can’t we as humans see it, analyze it, comprehend it, and embrace it?
I am tired of hearing news reports of workers in various industries screaming that the evil company is taking their jobs out of the country. Don’t read this wrong, I am all for treating people fairly by paying them a proper wage for work performed and the equitable distribution of profits. But, since when does a company ‘owe’ a worker a job? Those days are over, when three generations worked for ‘the company’, one puts in twenty-five years at ‘the company’, and ‘the company’ owes me a good life even after I retire. Hey, guess what. Things changed. ‘The company’, whether driven by greed or simple survival, has new options that don’t include you.
It’s easy—lazy, rather—to be complacent about change, to stick one’s head in the sand, to convince one’s self that change isn’t really happening, or that we can control whatever pressures are building by exerting a greater counter-pressure. It’s human nature to try to make simple sense out of complex things.
Well-educated theory-spouting futurists can only lay out possible scenarios of what upcoming changes will be. They cannot predict with certainty the details of change unless it is already underway. But by then, it’s not a prediction anymore. Change is unpredictable.
One need look no further than the recent events in the middle east to witness a perfect example of unforeseeable change. No one could know that the emotional spontaneity of one man could topple governments across the region. Mohammed Bouaziz, a jobless university graduate, set himself ablaze in Tunisia because he couldn’t afford to live. The social injustice of his death was too much for his countrymen to take. Like combustible gases filling a room, once they reach critical point, it only takes the tiniest spark to blow the whole place up. After decades of ignoring the people they govern, all the world’s leaders are getting a wake-up call because of this one man.
No one controls change, as much as some would arrogantly like to think they do. Bill Gates and his narrow-minded management team at Microsoft probably thought they owned change. For a long time, the Microsoft/Intel partnership did. They managed change into a profitability corner that was easier to work with. When new software or hardware popped up to challenge the dominance, it was bought up and the challenge was eliminated. That is, until the change they were trying to buy their way through happened outside even their massive sphere of control.
Change creates new business models and destroys old ones. Change is every business’s biggest competitor and it will always win eventually. This week, Borders Bookstores filed for bankruptcy. Who would have thought you could go broke selling books?
Change happens at different rates and for different reasons, depending on the how much pressure exists for it and the volatility of its catalyst. In the last twenty years, the most notable changes have been accelerated by technology, mainly because of information digitalization. Turning books, music, and images into bits easily sent over wires and through the air spawned a revolution in creating a spectrum of means to access it.
Kodak Corporation, a business model centered on film for cameras, acknowledged change long ago and accepted it. It is now a leader in the digital imaging industry. England’s Royal family recognized that if they didn’t change some traditions to reflect modern thinking, their loyal subjects would revolt at paying millions in taxes to keep a bloodline in a fairytale lifestyle out of touch with reality.
In this humble writer’s mind, all of us need to be more mindful about change in our personal lives. What changes can I make? What changes will make me?
