The Age of Emergent Change
I WOULD LIKE TO BEGIN THIS ARTICLE with a thought exercise. Think about something that you consider to be a constant in your life. It could be related to your business or your personal life, but it should be something that you almost take for granted because you know it’s always going to be there. Now imagine that you wake up tomorrow morning, grab your device to read the headlines, and this ‘constant’ has totally vanished from the world. It’s gone. Poof. And without it, there will be something very different about your day today.
What does this little exercise do to you? Does it excite you? Does it instill panic? One thing is certain: This is happening more and more, and the examples span industries. I myself have seen it happen first-hand more than once. When I worked in the media business, everyone believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that television programming had to have a strict schedule. Today, thanks to Netflix, Hulu and others, you can watch an entire season of your favourite show in a weekend, if you so desire. For many years I also worked in the energy space, and the concept of ‘centralized energy’ was a constant. We amassed the energy, and it had to be distributed in a certain way; until suddenly — or not so suddenly — it didn’t.
This thought exercise is important because it touches on your ability to adapt to change. The fact is, when you think you know what is going to happen next, that is when you are most ripe to be surprised.
Change Is No Longer Linear
As intersections of technology and humanity continue to proliferate, there will be even more opportunities for change — and yes, chaos — to emerge and surprise us. While it sounds impossible,
