We are all familiar with the ‘lightbulb’ moment, that time when suddenly, all seems clear, the idea that has been buried in the depths of your brain, unable to be born, suddenly sees the light.
Ever thought of the opposite?
The moment of Opacity?
That moment when you suddenly realised that something you had accepted as the norm, the way things were, a certainty, was suddenly revealed as a Furphy?
This is not something many of us think about much, if at all.
Perhaps it is not fashionable, but the moments of opacity are as important as the lightbulb moments.
My job is working with businesses to facilitate change, to move from the status quo, to something new, something that is almost always considerably outside their comfort zone.
To do that, I have to create those moments of Opacity, when my clients recognise that the way forward is different to the way they have followed to date.
Usually they are not moments, that is just a convenient metaphor.
Change is normally a process of recognising and revising the assumptions and behaviours that drive activity and priorities to accommodate a new reality, small bit by small bit.
Einstein is reported to have said something like ‘The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest’ and the legend of the chessboard is a well known example of just how powerful compounding really is.
Change is no different.
Small changes, compounded over time make a huge difference in time. The hardest bit is getting started, generating some momentum, but when that has happened, compounding can become an unstoppable force.
