Transitional change leads to transformation
How is it that every change we adopt seems to lead to bigger and more profound change?Sure enough, every technology innovation we adopt and incorporate into our businesses and lives contributes to our ongoing societal change. And that's scary and all encompassing, reaching into all areas of our life. That's what transformational change is all about.Let me say that another way. Every time another person incorporates any social media into their lives or business, enabling them to connect to the broader world - seamlessly, instantly - they experience a broader understanding of community. Their definition of neighbor expands. The images, the dialog, the video increases their ability to relate compassionately, viscerally, with a larger family. The end result? Our fundamental core beliefs about who our family is are changing.There is nothing more fundamental to our sense of self than who we call family - who we relate to as a tribe. As we change that belief, we begin to affect all the existing systems that were supported by the old belief of family/tribe.So as more of us begin to relate to, and truly empathize, with this greater interconnectedness, we support more businesses that protect and cherish our new, broader understanding of family. We will buy products that protect the environment - the home of my family. We will boycott companies who sell products that were made at the expense of my neighbor across the ocean.Before we know it, every transitional change we adopt takes us to a place where we feel like we are out of place and far behind. Every change we make seems to lead to bigger change.Or as Graham Button in FastCompany said:
"****! What just happened? Say you're a company. A good one, maybe even a great one. You're doing everything right but one day you wake up and everything's changed. And it isn't just a brutal recession. It's three things, all at once. One, new economics--suddenly it's all about China and India. Two, a new way for everyone to talk--social networks are the new lingua franca. And three, there's a new voice--the Millennials just showed up in the workforce and politics. No wonder there's "a gap between market awareness and business readiness," as the Economist Intelligence Unit puts it."
Our transitional changes are making transformational change. Now the question is, can we accept this depth of change and go with it or will we resist it?Wake up folks. Everything has changed for your business. What old business beliefs are you clinging to? Let them go and make a new better belief.