Of disruptions and our lives ...
Recently I attended a business seminar where I was reminded that as a business, I must focus on "disruptive innovation" or be "disrupted" totally!!!! A tirade of "disruptive technologies" was hurled my way as the shape of tomorrow and I was left gasping!
My first thought was I need to run away from it all - it seemed so complicated and challenged every tenet of my learnings so far, and I believe I have a decent share there!
But when I had coaxed my heart to stop pounding and to switch off "flight mode", I thought again of all that I had heard and about what I made of it; it didn't seem as formidable as during the first attack :) I reminded myself, I consider myself as a change agent and disruption is also about change - only that it's pace or maybe its approach appears more aggressive than I have been used to....
And that's the new world order - new technology, new communication, new culture, new reasons to fight one another, new forms of collaboration on one hand and of destruction in another.......but isn't that the way evolution works? Isn't that way it has always worked?
I remember my father, in the last 90s, dismissing all this "new" concern and talk about "global warming" - he said, "it has always been this way, otherwise we'd still be in Ice Age wouldn't we?" - and it was hard to argue that line of thinking.
So yes, disruption is not new just as change has always been a constant. I realize that the pace and momentum needs to be dealt with differently, and voila, you have a strategy, a direction!!!
I then started wondering how this new world order affects us in our daily lives, as humans, parents, spouses, kids, friends - and there's no escaping that it does! So do we need to "disrupt" our existing ways of living and loving in order to be able to cope with the new scheme of things? Do we need sociological disruptions as well? (and I really must go back to my budding sociologist daughter for a more formal answer on this!!!)
I guess my answer would be .... yes, we do. We do need to change the way we have traditionally behaved as parents, spouses, kids, friends. Even if "change" sounds a bit drastic (and causing flight mode to be switched back on) we have to accept that adjustments are required and cannot be walked away from.
The world will evolve the way it will - our kids and their kids will be different in their ways. Yes, there will always be a common thread of culture and values that have been passed on through generations but the manifestations of the same will need to be different, for sure. I believe in this.
And again, like those businesses I referred to in the beginning, either we need to open up to "disruptions" on our own and lead the way or be at the receiving end, which may not always be pleasant.
Like businesses, we need to use discretion about what needs to change and what cannot, should not....
As an illustration, let me tell you about my communication with my mother and that with my college going daughter.....
I have experienced my technologically savvy mother use WhatsApp to keep in constant touch with me, when she was around, even to the point that it almost got intrusive and sometimes bothered me - yet for her the need to stay involved in my life remained the same, just that the channel was new. However, when I move on to my daughter, I have had to adjust that same maternal need to stay in constant touch - I have to "disrupt" that thinking and that expectation within me - because its not only unhealthy, it's not even feasible. My daughter and I are still very much in touch through our devices but the constancy is what I have tried to control and it works just fine.
Similarly, I believe we should rethink the bases of all our relationships, especially with those in our generation and younger. Our times have changed a lot, our worlds have shifted gears at a pace we may not realize. Has our thinking kept pace?
Is it wise then, to reconsider how our relationships are now playing out and consider moving out of comfort zones? To adjust before you are struck by lightning or gradually eased out?
I am left wondering ......
My first thought was I need to run away from it all - it seemed so complicated and challenged every tenet of my learnings so far, and I believe I have a decent share there!
But when I had coaxed my heart to stop pounding and to switch off "flight mode", I thought again of all that I had heard and about what I made of it; it didn't seem as formidable as during the first attack :) I reminded myself, I consider myself as a change agent and disruption is also about change - only that it's pace or maybe its approach appears more aggressive than I have been used to....
And that's the new world order - new technology, new communication, new culture, new reasons to fight one another, new forms of collaboration on one hand and of destruction in another.......but isn't that the way evolution works? Isn't that way it has always worked?
I remember my father, in the last 90s, dismissing all this "new" concern and talk about "global warming" - he said, "it has always been this way, otherwise we'd still be in Ice Age wouldn't we?" - and it was hard to argue that line of thinking.
So yes, disruption is not new just as change has always been a constant. I realize that the pace and momentum needs to be dealt with differently, and voila, you have a strategy, a direction!!!
I then started wondering how this new world order affects us in our daily lives, as humans, parents, spouses, kids, friends - and there's no escaping that it does! So do we need to "disrupt" our existing ways of living and loving in order to be able to cope with the new scheme of things? Do we need sociological disruptions as well? (and I really must go back to my budding sociologist daughter for a more formal answer on this!!!)
I guess my answer would be .... yes, we do. We do need to change the way we have traditionally behaved as parents, spouses, kids, friends. Even if "change" sounds a bit drastic (and causing flight mode to be switched back on) we have to accept that adjustments are required and cannot be walked away from.
The world will evolve the way it will - our kids and their kids will be different in their ways. Yes, there will always be a common thread of culture and values that have been passed on through generations but the manifestations of the same will need to be different, for sure. I believe in this.
And again, like those businesses I referred to in the beginning, either we need to open up to "disruptions" on our own and lead the way or be at the receiving end, which may not always be pleasant.
Like businesses, we need to use discretion about what needs to change and what cannot, should not....
As an illustration, let me tell you about my communication with my mother and that with my college going daughter.....
I have experienced my technologically savvy mother use WhatsApp to keep in constant touch with me, when she was around, even to the point that it almost got intrusive and sometimes bothered me - yet for her the need to stay involved in my life remained the same, just that the channel was new. However, when I move on to my daughter, I have had to adjust that same maternal need to stay in constant touch - I have to "disrupt" that thinking and that expectation within me - because its not only unhealthy, it's not even feasible. My daughter and I are still very much in touch through our devices but the constancy is what I have tried to control and it works just fine.
Similarly, I believe we should rethink the bases of all our relationships, especially with those in our generation and younger. Our times have changed a lot, our worlds have shifted gears at a pace we may not realize. Has our thinking kept pace?
Is it wise then, to reconsider how our relationships are now playing out and consider moving out of comfort zones? To adjust before you are struck by lightning or gradually eased out?
I am left wondering ......
“If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.”
Albert Einstein, German-born Theoretical Physicist and Mathematician
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