Change, challenges and technology

One of the things I like about technology is the change, the growth, the challenge of working on new things, inventing new ways of doing things and solving new problems.

As companies grow in today's world, why do so many of those who could be at the forefront of change and coming up with ways to apply these new inventions (yes I call the evolutionary growth and leaps in technology, invention; but I also call invention that creativity of the people who give us practical application of new things, and inventors, those people who look at new technology and see the ways to make it useful to our daily education, business and lives) practically fear that change, fear that success?

The sadder part of this is that the companies that could benefit from this creative thought, scare it away or push it away into a pool of process entrenched in buzzwords like ITIL or QMS or ISO. Are these things bad in of themselves? No, they aren't. In fact all of them are good, they help build frameworks around the good things companies do in business; making them repeatable, sustainable and hopefully generating efficiencies that will help weed out the bad things we do and replace them with the good.

So, what is the bad? What is the complaint about these things. The complaint is that very few companies understand that these frameworks need to be flexible enough to encourage the change and innovation with the courage that takes them to their next level, or give them their next product or service to sell. But, instead of embracing the flexibility that helps us grow, companies embrace the structure, they think the framework is the solution and forget that the innovation and change brought on by the innovation of people are what make them successful.

In the struggle to embrace the framework, the people who generate and embrace change and new ideas are forced by their respective corporate policies to shut up and embrace or be punished. Punishments range from lectures, firings, demotions, promotion passovers, being passed over for pay raises etc...

What happens to the innovators when these punishments are passed on? Some pull up their own courage and move on. Some pull up their own courage and continue to force for change. And then some adapt, and become the automotons the corporation thinks they want.

Sometimes months, sometimes years later companies realize what has happened. They realize it when other companies stop buying their goods, services or both. Some companies plug the bleeding holes with soluble solutions such as new process fads or new CEO's or new layoffs. However, making shareholders feel good doesn't really contribute to the overall health of a company. Throwing away the things that made shareholders want to own pieces of something great, something growing and alive doesn't really fix things.

Is all bad, no... some is good... because some companies get off the treadmill before it's too late. They embrace change and learn to live in it. Growing pains show them new ways to grow, new ways to change, new ways to lead. These companies are on the cusp of innovation, but more than that, their people lead us into the future.

While corporate community is a macrocosm of motion, so are we all individuals microcosms of it. We have the ability to lead that change, to break the mold, to break out of our fear zones and courageously use the innovation in front of us. We need to embrace ideas, imagination and change. We need to be willing to make mistakes and successes. Start small and work big.

People around you will catch the excitement of that change. The excitement of fresh ideas is contagious. Maybe it'll rub off on your management, their management and your companies board of directors. Start something exciting, start something new and you may find that innovation and new ideas addictive.