“If I see any more signs on the walls of my workplace that tell me to be the change, I cannot be held accountable for what I may say.”

That came from a very good friend.  She’s intelligent, strong and full of cheerful humour. I knew exactly what she meant.  I want to be the change – my way – not at the whim of a business mantra that dictates the terms of change.  Brave words, but here is the situation: If our world is experiencing the strong winds of exponential change, we can be certain that we are being buffeted by those same air currents.  Words and phrases like productivity enhancements, strategic direction, and robust execution are bandied around as if we were dots on a graph, or a number in an equation.  And it was this line of thinking that gave me my “change” equation.  I was attending one of those embrace the new seminars, scribbling my notes on paper, when my pen stopped in mid-air, before landing on the paper to write, in bold strokes the equation:  N + t = Y.

 No + time = Yes

I knew that by the end of the seminar, the majority would be unhappy with the reorganization, but it wouldn’t be long before these same people would accept and happily acclimatize to a new environment. We will change, but we first say “no” to fresh ideas.  Even those amazing (and often annoying) souls, who seem to accept everything with cheerful gratitude, must undergo a series of decisions before plunging headlong into the unknown.