Its a Whole New World

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.” Abraham Lincoln

A new reality has emerged, a new economy, a new challenge.

We must think anew and develop a new mind-set and a new skill-set and a new tool-set that flows from it.


Adapted from The 8th Habit, by Stephen Covey.

Self-knowledge

“Self-knowledge is best learned, not by contemplation, but by action. Strive to do your duty and you will soon discover of what stuff you are made.” Johann Goethe

A New Paradigm

Stephen Covey, in his book The 8th Habit, says:

“If you want to make minor, incremental changes and improvements, work on practices, behavior or attitude. But if you want to make significant, quantum improvement, work on paradigms.”

A paradigm is a perception, assumption theory, frame of reference or lens through which you view the world. It is like a map of a city. If the map is inaccurate, it will make no difference how hard you try to find your destination or how positively you think—you’ll stay lost. But if the map is accurate, then diligence and attitude matter. But not until.

Covey uses the practice of bloodletting in the Middle Ages as an example of a wrong paradigm. It was the wrong paradigm of sickness and health that led the unnecessary death of many. If the paradigm is inaccurate, then the more efficient you are, or the faster you are, the more damage you will do. You could be the best at bloodletting and still be highly ineffective in curing disease. It wasn’t until a new paradigm of sickness and health was discovered, Germ Theory, that modern medicine was able to cure many of the diseases and illnesses that confounded doctors in the Middle Ages.

When we change our paradigm, and then our practice changes. Instead of spending time trying to get people to change their behavior, we should focus on changing their mindset. It takes more effort to do this, but it is much more effective in the long run. Give them an accurate map of reality, then they will be able to find their way through life. Paul said in Romans 12:2, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It takes more than just getting people to do a few more things better; it takes changing their mindset, so that they see things as God sees them and they think and feel about things as God thinks and feels about them. In this way, the whole person is transformed.

Life Lessons 6

The sixth life lesson is Time. Time is not under our control, and when it brings change, it frightens us. We are afraid of what we can’t control. But when one door closes, another door opens. However, the hallway can be very difficult and scary. We must learn to embrace change.

Our culture doesn’t value age. We fear it, we hate growing old, we don’t think the elderly are valuable. But we need to see that age is good, and it brings many valuable things that youth can’t. Instead of dreading getting older, learn to fully experience each season of life and learn all that you can from it.

As people grow older, we tend to view them the way they were instead of the way they are now. We even do this to ourselves. Learn to see people as they are, not as your remember them. Also realize that your past experiences shape your present reactions. Evaluate your reactions and create new ones if they don’t reflect the current reality.

The past does not equal the future. Don’t let the past control how you live today. Live in the present and you will experience true happiness. Focus on what you are doing right now in the present. Don’t get trapped in the past or caught up living only for the future. Dread, worry, and even anticipation can rob you of living fully in the now. Fully experience everything, and be fully engaged in whatever you are doing at the moment.

Realize that you can never be sure that the past happened exactly the way you remember it. Your memory is shaped by your perceptions and prejudices. You also can’t know the future. No matter how much you plan and prepare, you will never be able to know what will happen next. Therefore, live in the present. You still need to reflect on the past to learn from it and plan for the future and prepare for it, but the bulk of your attention should be on the present moment.

You do not know when you will die. It may be tomorrow or fifty years from now. No matter what your current situation may seem, you cannot predict the time of your death from it. Remember that heaven is timeless. It is outside of this temporal realm. There are things more important than this temporal world, so don’t get too entangled in them.

Life Lessons 4

The fourth life lesson is Loss. We lose everything we own. You don’t own anything; everything is on loan. The most important things in life cannot be taken away from you. The sooner you accept the fact that loss is an essential part of life, the sooner you will be able to live fully. Everything is temporary, so don’t try to make it permanent.

In the school of life, loss is one of the major courses. Loss teaches us what is truly important in life. Loss also draws us closer to each other and deepens our connections with each other. When you realize that you will eventually lose a loved one you will treasure that person all the more. Without loss there can be no growth. With loss there is always growth. With growth there is always loss. Everything that begins will eventually end. When we go through loss we are enabled to change. If we guard against loss, we hurt ourselves and hinder our own growth.

There is a natural process of grieving over loss. First, we deny the loss. Second, we become angry. Third, we try to make bargains to regain what was lost. Fourth, we become depressed. Finally, we learn to accept the loss and move on. Each person will experience this process differently, in a different order and at a different pace. This process can’t be forced or hurried along before the person is ready. All we can do is let it take its own course, realizing it will pass. Accepting this process is essential to healing and change.

Life Lessons 3

The third life lesson is Relationships. When faced with death, no one wishes they had spent more time at the office or watching TV. Instead, people always wish they had spent more time with those who are important to them. Why wait for either your death or the death of your loved ones to learn this lesson when you can learn it now and change your priorities so you have more time to spend with your loved ones.

Never take relationships for granted. Realize that every encounter with another human being is significant. Each person you meet in your life has something important to teach you, even people you meet for just a few seconds. There are no insignificant encounters. This is especially true of “difficult” people. Difficult people are your best teachers. They will teach you more about yourself than anyone else. Learn to pay attention and allow every encounter to deepen your understanding of yourself and life.

Don’t think that a relationship will solve all of your problems. If you have problems now, you will have the same problems if you enter into a relationship. If you expect others to solve your problems and make you happy, you will only end up hurting them and destroying the relationship. Any problem that you have right now will only be magnified and complicated by a relationship if you expect the relationship to solve the problem for you. You must learn to take responsibility for your own problems and your own happiness or you will never change and be happy.

Relationships won’t make you happy if you are not already happy. Relationships can magnify your happiness but will not create happiness if it is not already there. Often people who are unhappy in a relationship think that a different person will make them happy. But all they do is bring their old problems into the new relationship. Instead of throwing away your partner, throw away your problem. The problem is not your partner but you, and until you realize this you will never be happy in any relationship. Don’t try to change the other person, thinking that you will be happy if they would only be different. Rather, you need to change and become a better person if you are to be happy in the relationship.

Are You Ready for Massive Change?

Peter Drucker said:
“In a few hundred years, when the history of our time is written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event those historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time—literally—substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it.”

Massive changes are taking place as we live and these changes are ushering in a whole new era unlike any period in human history. In order to survive and succeed in this new age, today’s workers must make massive changes in his or her mindset, skills and behaviors. Failure to enter the new era with radically different tools will result in being left behind and unable to compete in the new society.

The first Age in human history was the Hunter/Gatherer Age and it lasted for millennia. The way to survive was to be a good hunter and gatherer, which meant developing the skills, mindset and behaviors that would make one effective in hunting game and gathering food from the wild.

The second Age in human history slowly encroached on this first age, and man began to use Agriculture to meet his needs. As a few men began to cultivate the earth, they discovered that they could produce fifty times as much food as the hunter/gatherers. Men began to develop the skills, mindset and behaviors needed to succeed in this new age, and within several millennia 97% of all men were farmers and only 3% were hunter/gatherers.

The third Age in human history burst on the scene as men discovered that by building factories they could increase productivity fifty times over the family farm. Within a century 97% of the population crowded into cities and industrial areas, leaving only 3% of the population on the farm. Those who learned the new skills, mindset and behaviors succeeded in this new age, while those who were slow in adapting suffered.

The fourth Age in human history has exploded in our faces within the past several decades. We are no longer in an Industrial Age but have transitioned to an Information/Knowledge Worker Age. The skills, mindset and behaviors of the Industrial Age will not work in this new age, and those who do not adapt will suffer. Within several decades 97% of all workers will be Knowledge Workers and only 3% will be Industrial Workers. What is fascinating the Information Age is the Knowledge Worker will be 100 times, 1,000 times, and even 10,000 times more productive than the Industrial Worker (according to Nathan Myhrvold, former Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft). Those who quickly obtain the proper skills, mindset and behaviors of the Information Age will find themselves light years ahead of those who cannot, or will not, learn to use the Knowledge Worker tools.

The near future holds unprecedented potential for those who have the foresight, wisdom and discipline to adapt quickly to these seismic changes. Those who can’t, or won’t, will be left behind.

Peter Drucker concludes:
“The most important, and indeed the truly unique, contribution of management in the 20th century was the fifty-fold increase in the productivity of the MANUAL WORKER in manufacturing.

The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly to increase the productivity of KNOWLEDGE WORK and the KNOWLEDGE WORKER.

The most valuable assets of a 20th century company were its production equipment. The most valuable asset of a 21st century institution, whether business or non-business, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity.”

Essential Conditions for Change

Some of this is redundant, but it is helpful:

1. There must be the capability for change, in the individual and group, for the new system. If there is not the potential or capacity for change, then change cannot take place. If we expose people to too great of complexity before they are able to handle it, we have not exhibit any level of human caring. For example, small children are not developmentally ready for complex thought and abstract reasoning, so to expect them to move to a higher level than they are capable of will do more harm than good. But as they grow, they gain new skills and abilities that will allow them to handle more complex problems. A leader must be able to evaluate his followers so that he knows when they are able to provide solutions that are able to move them to the next level and not try to force them to implement strategies that are beyond their capablility.

2. Solutions to the problems of living must be implemented before transformational change can take place. For example, if someone is starving, you cannot move them to change until you feed them. If someone is grieving over a loss, a leader must wait until the grieving process is complete before change can be implemented. Leaders must resolve all the previous problems before new ones can be addressed.

3. Dissonance is needed in order to give the individual or group a wake up call. People must be jostled out of their false sense of security before change can take place. For example, 911 was a wake up call, or a serious illness or a child arrested by the police can provide the dissonance needed. These wake people up to the fact that the present system is not working and transformation needs to take place.

4. In order for transformation to occur, the individual or group must fail so that it is clear that old solutions will not work. Until people come to the end of their rope, they will not look for radically new solutions. Often we become prisoners of our past success when our old solutions which worked so well no longer produce satisfactory results. It often takes repeated failure to teach us that we must look for new solutions. Leaders must be patient and wait for the process to run its course and be ready to lead the organization out of the old at the right time.

5. When we give up on old solutions we gain insight and begin to see the new solutions. We realize why the old stopped working and why the new will work. New models and systems emerge when we let go of the old and embrace the new.

6. We must then overcome barriers, often in the form of resistance from the old order. The new system must be instated even if the old system opposes it. As the new system takes root and it proves to be superior to the old, the old system will lose its grip and fade away.

7. Finally, you must consolidate and put all aspects of the system into practice. Resources and people must be mobilized in such a way as to focus their efforts like a laser beam. At this point a new system emerges and becomes the accepted way of doing things.

Variations of Change

The chapter on change in Spiral Dynamics Integral by Don Beck was very helpful by clarifying the various levels and types of change. His analysis not only helps prevent misunderstanding when talking about change, but it also is a useful tool to help leaders determine which type of change is needed for specific situations.

There are two tiers of change, the first being change within a system and the second being change from one system to another. Here are the eight variations of change:

TIER ONE
C1: Fine-tune, Minor alteration
C2: Reshuffle the Deck, Rotate existing resources or people
C3: New and Improved, Making existing things better or more effective
C4: Hunker down, Making changes to survive crises
C5: Stretch up, Think outside the box (and then return to the box with the new insight)

TIER TWO
C6: Revolutionary attack on barriers, Replace key components of a system
C7: Upturn to the next level, Transformational: change the form from one system to the next
C8: Epic change, Major shifts across multiple domains (e.g. industrial revolution, information revolution)

As a leader it is important to identify the “From what, To what, and How” aspects of change and then determine which variation of change is needed. Analyzing the situation effectively will enable the leader to make the appropriate changes and avoid meaningless or harmful changes.

Astronomy 161

I am currently listening to the audio recordings of the lectures for Prof. Richard Pogge's Autumn Quarter 2006 Astronomy 161 class at The Ohio State University. The information is foundational and accessible for the average layperson. I recommend listening to these lectures to get a basic understanding of astronomy and to increase your awareness and enjoyment of the night sky and the passing of the seasons.

In lecture 11 on the calendar I learned an interesting fact that in 46 BC, Julius Caesar had 80 days added to the year to realign the calendar so that the dates fit the soltices and the festivals. That year there were 445 days and many called it the "Year of Confusion" or the "Year of Total Confusion." While Julius Caesar claimed that he wanted to fix the calendar in order to please the gods by having the festivals occur at the appropriate time, others charged him with usurping the heavens. This contributed to his assassination two years later.

One must be careful when doing good, especially if it causes a lot of change. People resent change because it challenges the status quoa and upsets power structures. People don't like to relearn and adapt because it takes conscious thought and effort. When change is introduced, great care must be taken. Don't blindly make changes that affect other people; make sure that you consult with those who will be affected and get them to buy into the change first. Otherwise, you may end up like Julius Caesar. Just because you are trying to do something good that will benefit others, don't expect them to appreciate it.