Embracing Change

Embracing Change

“Embracing Change” has become a buzz word by people that want to show they are innovative, imaginative and creative. I think otherwise.

The people that make meaningful changes do it, have clear trails of the benefits and value they created and have open minds that listen to problems and find needs and suggestions of solving them. They do not have the time to talk about embracing change because they spend their time developing and implementing changes and keep at it through many failures until they reach the success they are seeking and then look for more.

I know this because I have worked with people that are creating changes every day and who must make changes to compete effectively and succeed. These are our entrepreneurs and business leaders. Very few come from our political leaders where many of their best ideas die in committees or they are afraid to proceed or act on their own because of the threat of failure or of offending someone and the high likelihood of criticism from the do-nothings.

I do not want to waste this space offering examples when all you need to do is look how you spend your time and do things and compare it to how it was just ten and certainly twenty years ago. It is businesses that sprouted forth the changes we enjoy today and will continue to enjoy. Not government!

In this presidential election season we will hear about the many changes the candidates say they will make, particularly in their first 100 days that gets me to wonder about their veracity and even more so about their character in that do they really believe what they are saying.

There are many different types of changes: Social, Cultural, Economic, Environmental, Business model, Process and Procedural, Taxes, Spending, Habitual and Personal. Some can be made easily and without affecting or impacting anyone else such as how we personally feel about people of certain ethnicity or sexual persuasion; or a resolve to lose weight by eating healthier foods. However, some changes cannot be made without impacting directly on something else. These are the changes our candidates are talking about making. For instance, an increase in minimum wages will impact the costs of those paying these wages and could cause a reduction in work force, an elimination of a high labor intensive product lines or an increase in prices which would raise consumer costs or cause a reduction in units sold. It would also increase the spending by those with the raises and certainly improve their standard of living and remove some of the daily pressures they always face – so these changes are complicated not devoid of numerous effects. Another example is a decrease in taxes for some people that will either have to cause an increase for others, a decrease in government spending or spur a growth of such great proportion that net government revenues will not decrease. Likewise economic growth will cause an increase in inflation, an interest rate rise that will raise costs of money that increase governmental interest costs but also increase cash flow to retirees living on interest payments which will also increase their spending in an inflationary economy perhaps leaving them worse off than before their cash flow increased.

I do not have the answers and certainly not even all of the questions, but what I would like to know is that those making the claims and promises do and that they show them to back up what they promise. I want to trust that they thought it through, worked it out with economic and financial models that considered all the alternatives, interactions and causes and effects, and really know what they are talking about and promising. If I could be assured of this, I will believe them. Until then these are empty promises with a high likelihood that they will not be kept. If that is so, what does this mean about the veracity of what they are saying?

Likewise those bragging about embracing change are not the category of people that make the changes that benefit us.