Most leaders understand that the world is changing rapidly.  The actual details are even more terrifying than that which we intuitively sense.
 

Our generation is facing change to such a degree that it is unprecedented in the history of mankind.  Of course, individuals and small groups of people have lived through mind-boggling change.  Time of war and natural disasters, for example, have uprooted groups and transported them to a condition light years away from where they started. But these changes have typically been the consequences of an event.  After the event passes, the folks settle into a new situation.
 

 

Let me illustrate. The root cause of our changing situation is the increase in information.  As information expands, it seeps into every area of our economy and culture and causes change.  So, to measure change, estimate the growth in information.
 

There is a measurement called ‘the total amount of information available to mankind.”  It is estimated that, in the year 1900, the total amount of information was doubling every 500 years.   That meant that the world was changing relatively slowly.  Our great grandparents, for example, probably lived in the same kinds of houses their parents did, worked at the same kinds of jobs, and interacted within the same kinds of social structures. 
 

Now, fast forward to the year 2,000.  The total amount of information available to mankind was doubling every two years.  Imagine the growth in the pace of change!  
 

 

 

“The spontaneous tendency of our culture is to inexorably add detail to our lives:  one more option, one more problem, one more commitment, one more expectation, one more purchase, one more debt, one more change, one more job, one more decision.  We must now deal with more ‘things per person’ than at any other time in history.”

That Margin was published in the year 2,000 adds even more emphasis to the speed of change today. 
 

One can’t help but conclude that there has never been a generation of business people who have had to deal with the pace of change moving as rapidly as our generation.  It truly is unprecedented.
 

The Potential Consequences
Look around us and we see products that have become obsolete almost overnight, (remember the I-pod) and companies come and go (where’s Howard Johnson’s these days?). Disruptive technologies upend entire industries (anyone want to invest in taxi companies these days?) in the blink of an eye.  
 

If we don’t effectively manage change, we risk our organizations and our lives being upended and rendered obsolete before we can respond. There was a time when an organization prided itself on being quick reacting.  Today, if you want to react, you are probably behind the curve.  
 

Leaders need to build disciplines and processes into their organizations that pro-actively identify the ‘next thing’ before it hits.  Unprecedented change calls for new thinking. 
 

So, what is a leader to do?
 

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