A recent sortie to France saw me visiting the Paléosite at Saint-Césaire where I was reminded that since time immemorial humans have faced change.  If homo sapiens hadn’t adapted to changing environments, changing needs, and changing thinking we wouldn’t be the dominant species on the planet.  I learned that, depending on where you want to draw the line, the anthropological background of modern humans can be traced to the Cro-Magnons of some 35,000 years ago or, taking a broader perspective, to the time when the Great Apes left the trees of Africa in the Rift Valley and stood upright – some 2 million years ago, or more.

            I was in the early stages of setting up new services for individuals and organisations facing change in their lives or businesses.  I got to wondering why, along with the many adaptations necessary to bring us to our proud position as rulers of the planet, that evolution hadn’t granted us an acceptance, if not a keen enthusiasm for seeking out and embracing change.  But no, we seem to prefer our comfort zones.  From my many years as an HR Management and Organisation Development specialist for Western European clients it had become apparent that the natural first reaction to a proposed change is to deny its existence.  Subsequently, we move on to resistance; then through a period of experimentation; before reaching the stage of acceptance.  There seems to be an inherent opposition to or confrontation with the very processes that have brought homo sapiens so far on our planet.

           Part of the reason, I thought, could be my narrow perspective of our relationship with change – the never-before-experienced, huge, and still increasing, rate of change in the Western world. Had this now accelerated, I wondered, to a pace beyond that for which we have a natural management ability?  Are many individuals unable to cope with the complexity and volume of inter-related issues that are generated by even the simplest change in our modern, hi-tech society? 

           Unlike our early ancestors, who often had hundreds or thousands of years to adapt to, say, a new design of hunting weapon, we are bombarded with complicated new technology that threatens to impact all walks of our life – and it is often superseded within months of its introduction.  Also, we are subjected to many changes at the same time.  I looked back to my visits to aid agency development programmes in parts of Kenya, Sudan, and other equally poor communities where the pressures of hi-tech and the volume of changes are less demanding.  I realised that, in general, although still with some caution in approach, there is far greater enthusiasm for change in these societies than I experience here in Europe.  Is our rejection of and reluctance to face change because we’ve never had it so good?  More worryingly, as a result of the years of abundance, have we, in Western industrialised society, trained ourselves out of the habit of seeking and effectively managing change.  If that is the case, we have a small problem – because lack of abundance has arrived; change is here, whether we like it or not.   

            As a result of our nervous approach to matters existing ‘beyond the pale’, our ability to bring conscious, coherent management to issues and events that threaten our inflated equilibrium has been impaired.  Self-examination, particularly in relation to changed and changing circumstances seems to induce distress rather than excitement of opportunity.   I hurried home and got on with my revised business set-up with renewed vigour.  The result is on http://www.pods-ireland.com.  PODS facilitates individuals and organisation in regenerating change management competencies, and examines new ways of coping with the volume of high intensity transitions with which we are now faced. Unless you are a Cro-Magnon, it might be worth taking a look.