If something is broken, you might be inclined to fix it. Having the chance to do so (time, money, resources) may seem like a perfect opportunity to implement fixes and execute changes.
However, sometimes it’s easier just to switch horses where you don’t have to fix any of the things that need fixing. Some of which may not even be (easily) fixable. This is especially hard to assess when it involves people and processes. But it becomes easy when you think about how likely people change, which in turn need to change in order to change processes changing more people along the way. Meaning: change is slow and it fights back. I know that from my own experience. It’s an ongoing everlasting struggle.
So why go through an excrutiatingly painful change process in the first place? You need a certain momentum to overcome friction that keeps you in place. To get the literal ball rolling. This momentum can be a shocking event or an unexpected opportunity or simply looking beyond one’s own nose, to see what else is there.
But this is also why some people tend to ditch their partners all too easily while others hang on to a bad relationship for way too long. You’ll have to find the right balance. And life, after all, is a game of balance. Yeah, and sometimes life just sucks and you can’t turn her off. Let alone turn her on. Now balance that!
Changing technology, coding styles, how you approach work, improving meeting discipline – well that should be easy. But in fact, it’s not. People resist change at all levels and they would only agree to so much risk that it really doesn’t make a difference. Imagine, for example, how terrible would you feel about poking a needle into the tip of your finger to draw blood from it? Diabetics do this regularly, once a day or so. I tried … and i tried … and it hurt even thinking about doing it within the next fraction of a second so that i resisted to poke the needle into my finger. But when you get used to it, it becomes second nature and nothing to be afraid about. I know, i’ve had to needle-pinch my tummy once a day after an operation for weeks. It’s harmless, really.
It only hurts if you don’t do it at all which just helps to prolong your agony and anticipation of pain. And it even hurts a lot more if you do it but you’re doing it wrong. At which point you’ll resist it even more and come up with rationalizations. You know, the kind that kinda make sense except they don’t.
Change is inevitable.
But tell that to a human being and he’ll pinch you in da face.
It’s late and i really shouldn’t blabber on so incoherently. Somewhere there’s a good thought or two but i couldn’t make it a point.
