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impossible, experts tell us that the world is never going to move
as slowly as it is right now. We are living in an age of emergent
change that is based on principles from science and economics.
A strongly ‘emergent’ system is one in which higher levels of
complexity possess genuine causal powers that are absent from
the constituent parts. That is, ‘wholes’ may exhibit properties
and principles that cannot be reduced to the cumulative effect
of the properties and laws of the components. If it sounds com-
plicated, it is.
The problem is this: We are not prepared to handle emer-
gent change. For generations, we have insisted that our busi-
nesses and institutions operate like fine-tuned machines. Our
focus on constantly improving our current systems has created an
imagination gap — a dark place where possibility and options for
the future go to die. The result: Everyone wants to already know
the answer. They want proof. The problem is, ‘the numbers’ can
only add up in the past; they can’t reflect the future, because it
hasn’t happened yet. As people continue to seek certainty and
perfection, they become less and less willing to try new things.
And organizations aren’t helping: most do not encourage cre-
ativity or reward people for problem-solving and taking risks.
Of course, we can’t just get rid of our legacy systems, and as
a result we are currently in an in-between space where the old
is going away (albeit slowly) and the new is emerging — and we
need to spend our energy on both. GE was my training ground
for developing this mindset. My team and I created the Eco-
magination program, and through it, we were able to imagine
a clean-tech revolution that was just starting to come together
at the periphery.
It all began when we realized we were hearing the same
message over and over from a number of customers in different
industries — not just energy, but rail, aviation and others. They
were all having to face new environmental regulations in some
parts of the world, and said to us, ‘We are going to go broke be-
cause we don’t know how to solve this problem. Help us!’ We
took their concerns to heart and started working on solutions.
Of course, not every customer thought this was a good idea.
Many of them fought it. They would say, ‘Hey, don’t get ahead
of us!’ There was also a lot of resistance internally, with people
asking, Why are you doing this? But, as we progressed into the
discovery phase, we started to realize that not only did we have
the capability and the capacity to make clean tech happen—the
outside world was also moving in this direction. We said to our-
selves, you know what? We can do this.
We launched an effort that would see us invest billions of
dollars in new tech to sell our products differently. We said to
the world, ‘We are going to hold ourselves accountable, and
we want you to hold us to a standard that makes our technol-
ogy both economically and ecologically sound’. To achieve this,
we had to open ourselves up to partnerships and to external
advice. And, in the process, we grew our brand value by 35 per
cent over the course of a five-year period. Over a decade, we
unlocked $30 billion of new revenue on an annual basis. We cre-
ated a mission that employees could rally around. Even our nay-
saying customers started to say, ‘You were right. This is the way
things are moving’.Three Pillars of Embracing Change
Based on my experience, three things are critical to achieving
the positive change that I witnessed at GE.- GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO IMAGINE. As my story indicates,
positive change — in your business or personal life — only hap-
pens when you give yourself permission to imagine a better
future for yourself, your customers, your company — even the
world. You will always encounter two kinds of people in your
You will encounter two kinds of people in your quest for change:
goalkeepers and gatekeepers.