AI: Change is inevitable. Learning from change is optional’ … Catherine DeVrye

Do you sometimes feel that you’re only constantly banging your head against a wall because it feels so good when you stop? Do you know people who, when faced with immovable objects, tasks or situations, never seem to stop banging their head against whatever imaginary brick wall is in their way? They never seem to learn. They never seem willing to adapt by looking at alternatives such as going around the brick wall rather than trying in vain to go through it.

It may be something as simple as a detour on a familiar, well-travelled road. I know a person who became incensed when repairs were being done to a street and they could no longer take their chosen route to work. One of their colleagues pointed out that they had inadvertently discovered that the alternative route was, in fact shorter and contained one less set of traffic lights, so they would continue using it, even once repairs to the old route were completed. Still, our complainer complained; became almost obsessed with the diversion and how the change in route had changed his routine.

This same person was always the one whinging at work as well; resisting new technology, an altered product line, a new manager or renovations to the office layout. You name it, he resisted it, either actively or passively. Sometimes the grumble would be only a low mumble when other times, the gripe would continue long after everyone else had forgotten there had even been a change!

It wasn’t hard to see why this employee, who was highly qualified and technically competent, had been passed over for promotions. As his IBM manager at the time, I felt obliged to point this out during a performance review.

I cited a joke about two guys who went to see ‘True Grit’. John Wayne, who never falls off his horse, did so in that movie.  One of the men had seen it before, so he bet his buddy five dollars that John Wayne would fall off his horse. Naturally, his friend took the bet, thinking that John Wayne never falls off his horse. After they came out of the picture theatre, he reached into his pocket to pay his bet, muttering that he couldn’t believe that John Wayne fell off his horse.

His friend refused to accept his winnings, admitting that he’d seen the movie before and had tricked his friend into the bet. The other replied: ‘Well, I’d seen it before too, but I can’t believe he’d fall off twice!’

I thought this story was a light-hearted example about optional learning from changed circumstance. However, the analogy seemed to fall on deaf ears of the problem employee, which prompted me to reflect that you could lead a horse to water but you couldn’t make it drink! The only drinking this dud ever did was at the pub; a thirst for knowledge seemed non-existent because he was as stubborn as a mule and didn’t have the horse sense to see that his days in the organisation were numbered if that attitude continued.

Few of us welcome all changes. All of us make mistakes. But one of the biggest mistakes of all is to welcome no change whatsoever. With the advent of cars, it was inevitable that there would be a decline in the buggy whip market. Even in my lifetime, computers replaced typewriters. Faxes replaced telegrams and became obsolete with the growth of electronic mail. Now there is AI!

IBM founder, Thomas Watson, stated in the 1950’s that there would only be a global market for five computers! In the 1970’s, the chairman of Digital boldly declared there would never be computers in the home.  And, later the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates stated that no user would require more than 640K of memory! Now there is AI. Even these leaders of multinational corporations hadn’t anticipated the changes in the technology market at the time. What made their organisations successful under their leadership was their ability to admit their predictions were wrong and revise their strategies accordingly in a changing world.

Unlike the employee who refused to learn from change these three men and countless other successful individuals had the horse sense, the common sense, to learn from the past to create a profitable future. They knew that change is a constant of any business.

Like the cowboy philosopher, Will Rogers, they also knew that even if you were on the right track, you’d get run over if you just stand there. Without doubt, they knew that:

‘Change is inevitable. Learning from change is optional.’