How many times have we sat in meetings to plan for the future, upturns and downturns alike, talked about strategy and improving the bottom line? Have you ever seen an agenda item at one of these meetings designated – CHANGE? Almost never! It never appears. People generally like to talk the talk about change, but really, deep down inside, they don’t want to walk the walk.
John Kenneth Galbraith, an eminent Canadian American economist, said, “Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof!” Spot on Ken! I’ve seen it time and time again. People trying to justify why they don’t need to change rather than opening the mind and searching for innovative change. It’s been recognized as the most dynamic and sometimes only way to make step improvements.
Even going back in time Nehru said, “The wheel of change moves on and those who were down go up and those who were up go down”, and even Darwin said, “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
So, why is change something people feel so difficult to embrace? Is it fear? Is it arrogance? Certainly one of the doctrines I preach to anyone coming in to my team is that being able to accept change is simply not enough. They have to have an insatiable appetite for change. Sometimes the response to the need to change is amazing. Woodrow Wilson said, “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” Think about it, isn’t that the truest statement ITHOE!
Not someone I agree with on a regular basis, but on this quote I make an exception, Barrack Obama said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
Even Andy Warhol (not sure that he had much in common with the President?) said, “They say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” Yes that means you, me and us!! It’s time not to just read this philosophical stuff, it’s time to get up and act. The problem usually lies with people who find it difficult to admit that they need to change. Unless that admission is forthcoming, change will not take place and the future will stagnate.
As Epictetus, the Greek philosopher said, “It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows!” Ohhhwaahh!! Brutally honest again, huh? Cuts to the quick doesn’t it? But it’s oh so true. We’ve all seen and heard this one over and over. Felix Adler, who was a social reformer and lecturer in ethical culture made a very simple but very relevant statement to the construction materials industry. “We cannot adopt a way of being that was satisfactory a hundred years ago. The world in which we live has changed, and we must change with it.” Very simple, you may say obvious, but needs to be said again and again because it is so often ignored.
Some great people, past and present, have been quoting on the issue of change forever, pleading, ordering, persuading and advising. So why is it that so many of us ignore the advice of people who we all recognize as great? John F. Kennedy said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote the best seller, “The Power of Positive Thinking,” said, “If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself.”
Pearl S. Buck, the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature said, which is just painfully true in most I come into contact with, “You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea.”
Finally a quote my sister-in-law Sue emailed me from across the pond, Sue you could have posted a comment on the blog instead of sending an email. It was a quote by Mahatma Gandhi which, if anyone has read this far, is the quote that you should stick on your windshields, on your desk or wherever you will see it most, “YOU MUST BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD.”
You’ve probably realized change is something I’m really passionate about and just like a daily safety inspection in a facility, a daily “change” hour is something I always try to do. Because of the nature of the people and world around us, this can be a very frustrating pastime so the change quotation that I try to live by is this, “God grant me the strength to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change what I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”
If there is a colleague in your office that is particularly resistant to change but does not realize it, give them a copy of the book “Who Moved My Cheese”. It’s a very quick read and makes it pretty easy to identify your behavioral tendency through the characters. When they’ve read it, ask them what they thought about it… which character they associated with? Hopefully a little reflection is triggered. Good blog.
I enjoyed this week’s blog. Impressive selection of quotes. I thought I would reply here to show that I have read, understood, absorbed and acted on the message.