CONSTANT, CONSISTENT CHANGE

Change is inevitable and universal.  It is not a matter of whether or not we wish to change.  It is rather how we wish to design and implement change and how we respond to change that we do not control. Whether your concerns are about an individual, an organization, a community or a country, or the world itself, nothing stands still unless it’s dead and even then, decay and decomposition set in. 
  

Nothing can grow or evolve or improve or adapt or adjust without changing.  Even if the change is simply altering the internal response to what is going on outside, the net result is still some type of change.  And that internal change may not be so small in the end.  I believe that the more you can change your internal structures and behaviors the more you have opportunities to influence the world around you.

  
You may be growing  your self, your organization, and reshaping and redesigning to meet the needs of the future.  You may be engaged in strategic visioning and making projections with some kind of refined business model or using different and creative approaches to solving problems.  Regardless of your goals or your strategies, it is all about change and how you are going to lead and manage that.

A book that has stuck in my head since graduate school days back in the 60’s was The Dynamics of Planned Change by Lippit, Watson and Westley.  (Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1958).  The very first sentence in that book is “The modern world is, above everything else, a world of rapid change.”  How could they have known what lay in store for the world in the next six decades and moreover, how can we know what lies ahead?  

I have relied often on Margaret Mead’s words of wisdom, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world; indeed  it is the only thing that ever has.”  Much depends on your needs, your goals and your commitments.  

Do you work with a small group of thoughtful, committed people?   If yes, what are the results?   Would you like to make changes for 2015?  Can you list them?  What are the top three?   What is your plan to make sure those happen?  Ready?  Set?  GO!   By the way,  it is not a race to see who is fastest, strongest or who works more or harder.   It is about the meaning and quality of your life, at work, at home and in that part of the world where you live and move and have your being.  Happy New Year!