rotmanmagazine.ca / 57I WOULD LIKE TO BEGIN THIS ARTICLE with a thought exercise. Think
about something that you consider to be a constant in your life.
It could be related to your business or your personal life, but it
should be something that you almost take for granted because
you know it’s always going to be there. Now imagine that you
wake up tomorrow morning, grab your device to read the head-
lines, and this ‘constant’ has totally vanished from the world.
It’s gone. Poof. And without it, there will be something very dif-
ferent about your day today.
What does this little exercise do to you? Does it excite
you? Does it instill panic? One thing is certain: This is happen-
ing more and more, and the examples span industries. I myself
have seen it happen first-hand more than once. When I worked
in the media business, everyone believed beyond a shadow of a
doubt that television programming had to have a strict sched-
ule. Today, thanks to Netflix, Hulu and others, you can watch
an entire season of your favourite show in a weekend, if you so
desire. For many years I also worked in the energy space, and
the concept of ‘centralized energy’ was a constant. We amassed
the energy, and it had to be distributed in a certain way; until
suddenly — or not so suddenly — it didn’t.
This thought exercise is important because it touches on
your ability to adapt to change. The fact is, when you think you
know what is going to happen next, that is when you are most
ripe to be surprised.Change Is No Longer Linear
As intersections of technology and humanity continue to pro-
liferate, there will be even more opportunities for change —
and yes, chaos — to emerge and surprise us. While it soundsEMERGENT
CHANGE
Futurists predict that we will experience 20,000 years of progress
in the course of the 21st century. Are you ready for it?by Beth Comstock