Of the difference between change and a fad
A change is something people do; a fad is something people talk about.
Few points on a topic I think a lot about:
- There is a certain class of people that see change as the norm and healthy, entrepreneurs.
- What differentiates entrepreneurs from other business people is that they search for change, respond to it, and exploit it as an opportunity.
- Entrepreneurship in itself is the search for change. One could see the dynamism in entrepreneurship as the ability to Look at every change, look out every window. And ask: “Could this be an opportunity?” “Is this new thing a genuine change or simply a fad?”
- The difference is very simple: A change is something people do, and a fad is something people talk about. An enormous amount of talk is a fad. You must also ask yourself if these transitions, these changes, are an opportunity or a threat. If you start out by looking at change as threat, you will never innovate. Don’t dismiss something because this is not what you had planned. The unexpected is often the best source of innovation.
- Peter Drucker challenges us to learn to identify the genuine from the meaningless (being a fad sharing minion). Ignore the fads; figure out how to capitalize on the genuine changes. Distinguish those who talk and those who walk the talk.
- Drucker: "One cannot manage change, they can only be ahead of it by creating it. Look at every change, look out every window. And ask: “Could this be an opportunity?”
- My mentor Venkatesh Rao in his book Towards an Appreciative View of Technology reminds us to explore moving on from possible change to actual change. We aren't entirely creatures of anchored cognition. We do take note of change when it is blunt enough to hit us in the face.
- But this is not always without recourse. On how to connects change with sense-making in our every day world (Cynefin): "It’s a technological change for sure: legacy systems, written without the safety net of automated tests and maintainable code, require more careful change. The journey to making something easy to change is loss-leading; it doesn’t produce results for some time, and so developers are always under pressure to cut corners. It’s an endless battle.
- I will end this reflection with something Dave Snowden himself references in his book on Cynefin (above link): "One thing the experience taught me was that if you start out with an idealistic set of ideas, you are unlikely to stay engaged as a consultant." One cannot bring change to their client if their ideologies were unwavering.