TWC Session 4 (Week 4)

Figure 1. Maurizio Nannucci's Changing Place, Changing Time, Changing Thoughts, Changing Future
Reproduced from Guggenheim Venice. (2003)

Brief Overview/Summary

Before the session, we discussed if Singapore should also start tap onto renewable energy and that consumers i.e. us should be standing up, change our behavior and not largely the government's responsibility to change the direction. Prof. also mentioned that we should look at things at a big picture and not solely believing in one article and forget about the rest.

First part of the session, we look into the topic, Drivers of World Change. A Driver is defined as a factor that can play a direct role in bringing about change to the world, (Game Changer). We focused on the different global drivers and how they are inter-related,

• Environmental drivers - How pollution/climate change change our behavior; how diseases change our behavior; evolution of the human,how we change our expectations with time; how the intensive use then deplete of natural resources change our behavior.
• Scientific Discovery and Technology Innovation- How new ideas and knowledge change the world and how things work.
• Competition- in terms of ideology, for example, if USA & USSR did not compete in the space venture, till now no one would have landed on the moon or enter space.
• Demographics - how the increase in population and age-ing population change the world.

We also discussed the meanings behind three quotes by Charles Darwin, George Bernard Shaw and Oliver W.Holmes. Then, we look into the difference between evolution and revolutionary change, in addition we covered disruptive change which is more revolutionary than evolutionary, and it is an irreversible change, change that is unexpected in your expected future. as quoted from Doug Berger-"Disruptive change is an irreversible change in your expected future.”  

The Chasm which is illustrated by Geoffrey Moore in Crossing the Chasm, which I will discuss in the next part. Reading 4 talks about how global drivers of world change, change the construction industry in Zambia, and we conclude that a more globalized country tends to thrive more.

Second part of the session, we look into Change Management & Change Leadership. The difference between a Leader and a Manager. The way we respond to change is that we are being reactive, being pro-active by leading change and implementing the plan which is managing change, and this is related Reading 4 which tells us the 3 steps on how to lead change.

 

Interesting Observations and Ideas

• The chasm, which is believed to be the hardest line for the consumers to cross (from Early Majority Pragmatists to Early Adopters) in new technology adaptation that this is a challenge to market a product to shift the customers  from pragmatists to early adopters.
• Pessimism-Time Curve which looks pro-actively managing change and compared to dating, that how people will be optimistic at first then they are informed of the challenges (being pessimistic) then realized it is reality and finally completes the process

Key Take Away Points

• Global drivers of the world, makes a country more globalized and it will thrive more.
• If you don't embrace change you cannot lead change.
• If organizations able to adapt to change and change towards the changes, they will succeed
• Once we see a different way in doing things, we will not use the old way because we will use the new idea as it is a better way.
• Leader vs Manager, the former creates a paradigm for an organization (setting up a framework, a visionary) while the latter works well under a given paradigm (implements the framework)
• Before we lead change then manage it, we will respond to it first.

Issues for Further Discussion

Personal Ratings for Session

I rate this session 10/10 as the session was straightforward and easy to grasp and the presentations from peers were very related and insightful.