Constant Reinvention
- Feb 18
- 3 min read
In 2000 I was working in London on one of my company’s first e-commerce projects. It’s hard to imagine a world before e-commerce now, isn’t it? But that world existed and my company had signed a UK company to create their first ecommerce site before the holiday season. It was a wildly exciting time to be in the tech industry and advising businesses on such monumental change. Upon arrival I met Andrew, a brilliant developer from New Zealand. Andrew introduced me to the concept of agile development practices. He was ahead of the game. Agile can best be described as a flexible approach in software where it is developed in iterative stages. Agile didn’t really emerge in the broader market until the next year. But our company was all about strategically being out front.
I went on to work with other agencies who had fully adopted the approach. I grew up professionally with the build, test, modify, release, build, integrate, test, modify, release model – often on a weekly basis, if not faster. I didn’t know how to think any different. Be inclusive of thought. Be rigorous with a schedule. Be agile and keep re-evaluating if it works.
A few years later I started my own company designing a digital product that hadn’t existed in the healthcare market yet. I relied on, and trusted, my team to kick all the tires on every design. We tweaked, changed and constantly, rapidly, refined everything to ensure we were building the right product.
Later I had the privilege of working for a company also building a new IoT product that had never been part of its product line, nor had ever been built. I had the very special privilege of being part of the team to attend “The Factory” in San Francisco. The Factory was a Silicon Valley–based venture studio founded by Tom Chi. It was the early Google, Google X days and The Factory brought companies through rapid prototyping and impact innovation process. They supported, informed and kicked all the tires, all the time to ensure there was a viable product and a solid plan for the business.
I don’t know any other way to think than in integrated three dimensions. For me it’s exciting. But for businesses in other industries who have traditionally followed a logical, sequential, process, the world we live in now (which recently went from one dimensional to an automated Rubik’s Cube) is requiring them to think in ways they are not familiar with. And that can be scary.
I recently attended a week-long Change-Lab hosted by Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva, a world renown Change leader/reinventist. She spoke of “The Titanic Syndrome” many businesses are facing right now - the phenomenon where individuals and organizations cling to routines, assumptions, or past successes, ignoring early warning signs until the impact becomes real. In the last 18 months there has been a seismic shift in how we need to do business and now we need to think differently.
She also reminded the participants that we are all (actually) wired for change. Have you ever heard of a baby stop trying to walk? Giving up while during the crawling stage as if to say, “I’m good. I think I will just stay crawling forever”. No. Every single day we change. We learn something new. We evolve. We advance something in our lives or help others advance theirs. We are wired for change.
The trick in today’s world is to remember that and remember when we have done change well – so let’s keep using those techniques. Is it more complex? Yes. So, look at the skills you and others have around you and think how you might recombine skill sets to navigate what is changing. And, if you would like to brainstorm ways to do that, I’m here.
