The Pace of Change is Accelerating

Can regulatory oversight and public policy keep up with the pace of change?

Did you ever notice that culture never asks for permission to change? It just does. The pace of change is rapid and accelerating, and those changes in modern society are disrupting cultural norms and making things irrelevant. Consider these examples:

• Remember when you used to tell friends you’d call in the evening or on weekends when long distance rates were less? Now long the rates are irrelevant.
• The smartphone replaced or changed entire industries. The list of product categories becoming obsolete or at least less relevant is long and growing. It includes alarm clocks, books & book stores, calculators, calendars, cameras & camcorders, game consoles, maps, newspapers, photo studios & albums, stereo systems & music collections, and much more.
• Pay phones are gone too. So are video stores. Record stores are almost extinct except for collectable vinyl. The same goes for phone books and even calling 411 for directory assistance. The way we consume news and movies or interact with friends has changed too, with both cultural and political implications. Fueled by the Internet and social media, new thoughts are now communicated instantaneously and often autonomously. Too often, that sharing occurs without giving time to fully digest or verify the information, leading to disinformation.

The World Economic Forum and futurists like Ray Kurzweil see cultural change as virtually incomprehensible and driven largely by exponential technology evolution. But at the same time, we’re not crafting the needed public policies and regulatory oversight. Progress in Congress is stagnated because of our politics is so divided. So, even our system of government seems at risk if it’s unable to evolve fast enough to keep up.

Rick Warren offers an interesting perspective of the pace of change in his 2012 TED Talk. He says remaining relevant in the face of a changing world is a choice. “When the speed of technological or cultural change around an organization occurs faster than the speed of change within an organization, that’s when the organization becomes irrelevant.”

That same thought can apply to individuals in the job market, or to nations and governments. That scares the hell out of those sitting at the top of any industry and looking down at hungry competitors. They know that to survive they must change. After all, nearly 90% of the original [1955] Fortune 500 companies are no longer in business today. 

The tendency toward irrelevance, and the threat to our democratic form of government, is occurring faster today than decades ago. Here’s how Warren says we can cope:

1. Develop a “Lab mentality,” where you are always experimenting, knowing that most times you’ll fail. But fail often and fail fast.
2. Never stop learning and continue developing improved skills (Sharpen your ax). That, in my view applies to the need to constantly invest in education and lifelong learning.
3. Acknowledge the grief, letting go of the old to grab onto the new. He says we should honor the past without perpetuating the past. Ask what “should” change, and what should never change (values & character).

I gained a similar perspective during my early days as an IBM programmer in the 1970s. While studying Structured Programming, I learned about the need to discard old code and start anew once about 20% of the program changes. The theory was that constantly updating program code to fix errors or add new function too often introduced more errors. Restarting from scratch was seen as more efficient and strategic, because it forced valuable new thinking, leading to far better solutions to changing times. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Caswell is a retired IBM technologist, futurist, market strategist, consumer advocate, sleep economist, and founding editor of Modern Health Talk. With international leadership experience developing wireless networks, sensors, and smart home technologies, he’s been an advocate for Big Broadband and fiber-to-the-home while also enjoying success lobbying for consumers. Wayne leans left to support progressive policies but considers himself politically independent. (contact & BIO)