Have you seen that movie Contact
(1997). Has one of my favorite actors, Jodi Foster. I love that movie. It's got
a message, a beautiful one, but scary nonetheless.... Every time you discover
something new, depending on how radical your findings are, the opposition you receive
is equally proportional. This leads to another thought, we human beings always
tend to support existing rules more and have an aversion to new or radically
ideas or thoughts.
The more you try to bring in a
change, the stronger people will resist it. Often to the point, that logical
explanations would be called lies or delusions of your mind.
So does that mean that I start being
skeptic as well?
Think for a moment. How do we grow
and evolve? How do we find new things? How do we create new things?
It all starts with a new and at
times radical idea. If we all had followed the same rule over and over and over
again, I guess we would still be living in forests and eating raw meat. So it's
essential that we accept changes and be open to them. But only if things were
as simple...
Consider this scenario - as part of
my new job, I meet a lot of people. I tell them how to do a few things in a
certain way, and how to improve the existing processes. I certainly don't have
a degree in process optimization, but I make my presentations and a few people
seem to like it.
So I recently met this gentleman
who's a Regional Sales Manager with an electric equipment manufacturer. He told
me his problem and I proposed a solution. He liked the idea of getting an
outsider's view and agreed to let me help. I would obviously be paid a certain
agreed amount if it worked, and a certain agreed minimum amount if he called
off the whole project or did not like the results.
So that's how it started. After some
two weeks of analysis of some data I felt were relevant, I suggested the
necessary changes. And voila, the skeptic shows up. One of the people affected
by my recommendations raised an objection. I presented the necessary facts
based on the data collected and the mutually agreed assumptions. Very late into
the discussions and after some two hours of long conversation I found out that
the only reason he objected was because he thought that my Ideas were too
radical. No one's ever tried it before. Maybe it works in the outsourcing
industry, does not mean it will work equally well in the manufacturing
industry. It is bound to fail. We reasoned a little and with a little help was
able to convince, or let me admit, arm-twist him into doing it.
That brings me back to the original
question, why resist something you don't really know about?
Is it really a part of our nature?
Or is it the risk involved that stops us from trying new ideas?
Even after questioning myself so
many times, I can't really reach a conclusion. Even I do the same thing every
now n then. I just wrote a whole article on this topic, but I know that when I
go the restaurant tonight, I will order my tried and tested dishes and the same
good old drink I order every single time. Until the day, the Chef comes out and
says that the new dish he added to the menu is just wonderful. Everybody liked
it. I will like it too...
Wait a minute, that answers my question... Did it answer yours?
