The Crisis Of Modernity

Since the beginning of the industrial era our world has been facing what some historians call an ongoing "crisis of modernity". As fast as we adjust to new circumstances, the circumstances change again, and, the rate of change seems to be multiplying exponentially.

Of all the demands imposed by twenty first century leadership, perhaps the toughest is the ability to not only manage change but to instigate it, control it and to be it's master. Dealing with the ever increasing rate of change may be the leader's most potentially overwhelming task. Today's Change Agent is an agressive forward thinker.

The Industrial Age was supplanted by the Information Age and the Electronic Information Age has made even that seem like kindergarten stuff. The instant availability of information on virtually any subject has eroded our ability to pause, analyze and reason alternatives.

In the manufacturing world where only a few years ago, "better late than never" was the watchword, today the word is "better never than late." If your new product isn't first to market - forget it - the chances of recouping R&D costs are just about nil.

We demand instant everything

Even beyond new product development, our customers expect instant response to every request. They demand that we be on our toes, ready and able to provide order status information NOW! They also expect us to deal with changes in specifications, quantity and scheduling without a hitch - and with no surcharge.

Is it any wonder that more and more people are suffering the effects of stress -- an epidemic second only to the virus of offshore competition -- and of stress induced illness? How can any person be expected to cope with a world where change takes place at supersonic speed, where nothing stays the same long enough to become familiar, where understanding happens only in retrospect?

To stay ahead of change, get behind it!

A fundamental aspect of Leadership Development is learning to not only cope with this epidemic but to turn it into a dynamic force for personal and corporate growth.There is only one way to cope with change. The only way to stay ahead of change is to get behind it! Those who promote change are in charge of it, those who oppose it are overwhelmed by it!

Those who must be dragged kicking and screaming into the next set of changed circumstances will be crushed by those who push change ahead of them. To quote author H. Jackson Brown, "In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not through strength but by perseverance."

When we determine to become advocates for change we suddenly find ourselves in the position of pusher rather than pushee, we are more relaxed, more self confident, more self assured and we find that others are more willing to follow our lead.

The great writer, teacher and consultant Peter F. Drucker summed it up this way, "The best way to predict the future is to create it." It's also the easier way! If you believe you can hold back the snowball of progress, you are doomed to be swallowed up in something over which you can never hope to have any control.

All change is not good - all change is not inevitable

Please don't take these remarks to indicate that all change is good, or even that all change is inevitable. The prayer of St. Francis (long the watchword of AA) asks for; the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept those things I can not change and (most difficult of all) the wisdom to know the difference.

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