Change is the only constant.
The minute prof wrote this on the white board, I could immediately relate to it. Be it on a large scale like the world, or on a small scale like my life ... Everything is changing, almost every second. In class, we spoke about the world changing. There are many factors leading to world change: environmental, scientific and technological, social, demographic, cultural, ideological change, just to name a few. You may wonder, how these factors bring about change in the world? Well, evolution, development of man from a hunter-gatherer to a farmer and eventually leading the world toward industrialization - that changed the world. The result of industrialization, the pollution and global warming - that changed the world. The various inventions, like the light bulb - that changed the world.
We humans have gone through evolution and the world has gone through revolution. You may wonder, what's the difference? The world, since it's inception, has been going through constant change, some good, some bad. Humans have evolved as a result of these changes. They have adapted themselves to the world of today. What would have happened if they had not changed and stayed as hunter-gatherers? They wouldn't have been able to survive long enough. The ability of a living being to adapt to changes determines their longevity. Leave humans, even the various animals and birds in the world have learnt to adapt. Those who cannot adapt well to changes, shift places (migrate/hibernate). This is, in a sense, the law of nature.
Another important thing about change, people only change when they want to. How is that? Let's take the example of the iPhone 5. When it is launched, the tech crazy and Apple fanatics are the firsts to buy it. Next would be those who have used Apple products and want to upgrade maybe. Third would be the ones worried about status quo (the whole world has an iPhone 5, how can I still have the 4S!!) and finally would be the ones who after hearing from everyone, would like to change their phones for more convenience. So you see, a person only buys the iPhone 5 when he/she wants to. Sometimes, there is no option and change is inevitable. Like for example, when there used to be a fire in the forest, the hunter-gatherers had to move away from that place. Similarly, when the world undergoes revolution, the people have to change. So change is also a two sided coin. It depends on which side faces you once the coin falls.
In the second half of the class we spoke of managing change and leading a change. Again could be related to the analogy above, humans wanting to change v/s humans being forced to change. When you lead a change is when you want the change. However, when the world changes, you are forced to change. Even in the behavior model we had studied in the earlier session, it all depends on your willingness to change. The rising star is one who is willing to adapt to the change, and perhaps even think ahead and anticipate the change. The dominant player too is the one who has accepted the change. However, the dominant player becomes the falling star as soon as it denies changing. In other words, you either change, or you die. There is no third option. There are two ways to change: you either change and settle in the change and then once the next change comes you change again (confusing right?!) or you keep changing continuously with the times. Again, if you have the iOS 5 on your phone, and you just don't change until your phone stops working and asks you to update your iOS, well that's being forced to change. On the other hand, you keep updating your iOS as and when updates come along, that's monitoring the change and adapting continuously.
The presentations in class were also very well done, and I especially like the presentation on Hugh Hefner. It was an interesting perspective, seeing a casanova as a leader of change. It takes a great mind to come up with the idea of Playboy. He changed the way the world thinks. Who knows, maybe he had a major impact in the making the people of the world open-minded. Maybe he is the one who changed the perception of "sex" being a taboo word. Whatever it is, he brought about a change in the world.
Overall, my rating of the class: 8/10 :)
No comments:
Post a Comment