Change with Change. Lesson 4

"If everyone consumed as much as the average Singaporean and U.S. Resident, the world's oil reserve would be depleted in 9 years."

Wow!  Thats the first word that came into my mind. It was with this quote that Prof. began Session 4. Today's class was going to be about the Drivers of World Change. I was pretty lost for a minute in the quote. Imagine if we all did consume that much oil? But then again, are we entitled to believe that only US and Singapore are responsible for this?

As Prof. mentioned, its time people started waking up and realizing that its time to stop playing the blame game and start taking equal responsibility of your surroundings and your actions. For a second I felt bad, because I was one of these people who always blamed the developed nations for the damage and believed that it was them who should be the solution. I never realized that all of us are equally responsible and must do our part because "we are them".

Moving on to the content of class, it was mainly based on the drivers of world change. These are factors that bring about a direct change in the world. We understood that there are various different types of drivers- environmental, scientific, social, commercial and many more. Prof. says he likes to quote dead people :D but truth being told, I can't disagree more on how much sense those quotes make. One particular quote I enjoyed was by Charles Darwin, 

"The fittest in not the strongest, its about who can adapt to change." Just another perk about TWC class; it breaks any stereotypical notions you may have. Through discussions, we all did agree that in this ever changing world, its most important to be adaptable to change, in order to survive. 

We also looked closely at Total Quality Management (TQM) and disruptive change (an irreversible change) as trying to understand the difference between an evolutionary and a revolutionary change. The trick is to keep evolving and changing revolutionary, as it prepares you for change. 

In session 4B, Prof. told us that we can chose to be Eagles. Ostriches or Dodo's, which basically means we can either chose to be 

1.) alert, aware and grab opportunities (eagle)

2.) lost, confused and try to catch up (ostrich)

3.) be indifferent and perish (dodo)

This session was focusing more on Change Management and Change Leadership. We discussed the difference between a manager and a leader. I could relate very well to a description one of my classmates pointed out- Managers follow given paths, but Leaders explore into the unknown and leave behind paths to follow. And that was the most concise way to put it. Who can be a leader then? 

Anyone :) Thats the beauty of it. Through a very interesting video, called "Leadership from Dancing", we understood how being the first one to take a chance isn't that difficult as it is to be the first follower. As it is by this first follower that one goes from being a loner to a leader.

Sometimes, its hard to be the person to create a change. Its never well accepted and finding support for it can be hard. But the greatest of leaders took risks, failed, and then found their way to be the greatest leaders of change. Steve Jobs is the greatest example which was also further enforced by one of my classmates through her individual oral presentation. 

The most important thing that I learnt from this class is to be adaptable to change. This very well applies not only to communities around the world to help sustain their every sources, but also to complains to stay on top and stay innovative. 

The presentations of the week were interesting and fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the presentation about how flight changed the world. 

Ratings: 8/10

Waiting for the Viral to hit again :)