A change in change
Just a day or two before, I was invited on the weekly Yi-tan Tech call, organized by Pip and Change Fellow Jerry Michalski. On the call I made an argument for a shift in change itself, based upon three developments we see around us.
First: up untill now a focus has been put on big transformations; paradigm shifts so you will, that change the fabric of society as we know it today. It makes perfect sense in the time that we’ve come from, in which capital was driving the big idea’s. With the recent crisis we believe that the focus in a business sense will be shifiting from WHAT you want to do, to HOW you’re going to achieve it. That will lead to a shift on continual change rather than on the big transformations.
Second: we see a shift in focussing on problems to dealing with dilemma’s. Increasingly there are no ‘right’ solutions to the challenges we face today. Rather, we have to make choices between two equally unfavorable options. And finally: we see a shift from farsight to insight. This is a little play on words, but what we mean with it is that by always focussing just on the longview or the far future, you tend to see what will be coming at a far distance, but the things right in front of you are out of focus (as is experienced when you are farsighted). Instead, as a result of the two previous developments, focus will be put on insight: understanding the underlying dynamics of change.
Will the little steps be outpaced?
In my discussion yesterday with Doug, we took those developments as a starting point for a conversation on sustainability. We both agreed, I think (correct me if I’m wrong Doug), that ’sustainability’ as an end goal is most often portrayed as a utopian state in which we live in a perfect equilibrium. It’s like a pertuum mobile. Bu focussing on that utopia in the far future, people tend to overlook the little steps it takes to get there. The first steps to take will not be completely sustainable yet, but they can be seen as an improvement from where we’re coming. Does that justify ’shooting down’ all these various initiatives there are? Sure, LNG is far from ‘green’ but better than the oil we’re using. Good or bad to make that shift?
To my opinion good. Therefor, we rather talk of ‘The Road To Sustainability’ and try to lay down a path by defining various waypoints to get to a more sustainable world. In other words: focus on what the crucial dynamics for this transformative change are, rather than focusing on the end point. Shift from transformation to (continuous) change, from problem to dilemma, and from farsight to insight. But that left us with a question, that we didn’t have a solution on, so I thought, you all might help us on an answer. Will these ‘little steps’ be too small, and will the unsustainable situation of our world catch up with us, before we can change? Will we be too late?
I think there are many answers to this question, that you can give from various perspectives. I’m not looking for an answer of ‘true’ or ‘false’ but rather: what are the steps to take?
