Chapter 5
ADAPT: Adapting to Change
A number of times in the first few chapters of this book, I have mentioned the need to learn how to ADAPT to change. In outlining the disruptive technologies of the social mobile cloud that are simultaneously arriving at our doorsteps, I provided a glimpse into the forcing function for change. However, technology is only 20 percent of what is happening, the rest is about people and their behaviors and organizations and their processes. And to survive and thrive in the new world that technology is bringing us, we will need to learn to ADAPT—both as individuals and as organizations.
Technological Changes
Throughout history, technology has brought change to the way we live and work and required that we adapt to these changes. For most of the history of civilization, this need to adapt occurred over generations with the occasional turning point event that accelerated change—what a geologist would refer to as cataclysmic change or in evolutionary biology as punctuated equilibrium. Many of those moments of punctuation in civilization were brought about by technological changes.
The invention of the printing press was one such change; bringing with it the ability to eliminate the tedious task of hand reproduction of texts. But it also democratized access to information and had unanticipated consequences for both the church and governments. Even before this change, the rapid evolution of siege weapons transformed warfare and by extension architecture ...
