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Change Does Not Always Mean Progress
Wednesday 20th May 2009
This months question is:
From what you are witnessing first hand, what things are changing, or what differences can you see in the world that you don't think are necessarily for the better?
I will do my best to condense my answer down to a number of areas that I continue to see on a day to day basis. In doing so, I hope these are relevant to you and your world?
To begin my reply, I would like to point out that in a lot of the situations, I continue to see and experience is that in many instances, change does not necessarily mean progress.
So with that said, let's take a look at the three areas I have selected.
1. Quality v Convenience
I'm not about making things harder, and at the same time, I am not about compromising quality either, but the quick fix formula seems to have filtered into so many aspects of modern day life and the convenience factor is not too far behind it.
Each and everyone of us has the opportunity, the right and the ability to make our own decisions about what is good/bad or right/wrong for us and what we want.
But are we slowly, slowly continuing to drift more towards the convenient as opposed to the quality?
Let's take a look at few situations so you get an idea of where I am coming from when I ask that question:
For a long time we would not find it out of place to stand in line to order a sandwich or the like for lunch. You walk up, stand in line, have a conversation with someone around you and then when it is your turn you place your order.
The person you have placed your order with either personally or passes the order onto someone else, who then takes quality fresh ingredients and puts together a meal that you take great delight and nutritional benefit from devouring. All in all, it probably took five minutes from order to chow time.
These days things have changed in the world of takeaway food and changed on two different fronts in the name of convenience. On one tangent, you don't need to walk up to place your food order, in fact chances are you don't even have to get out of your car.
All you do is just go into the drive thru lane, stop at the walky talky post, place your order, drive through to the next window, pay for your order and then drive to the last window and there it is a quick convenient meal.
On the second, the food that gets handed to you through your car window is mass produced and pre prepared to provide you with this convenience.
The down side to this little scenario is the nutritional quality of the food. The upside is the convenience.
Before we move on, I think it only fair to give some credit where credit is due. Some of these fast food companies have tried to expand their menu and in the process, increase the nutritional content of their meals. Are they there yet? Well, that is the part that is and will continue to be open for debate.
But let's move on:
As a teenager I would spend many hours going to HI FI shops listening to new turntables, high end valve amplifiers, reel to reel tapes being played through precision speakers. The result? A wonderful listening experience.
These days though it is all about 8,000 songs compressed to the daylights, so they can fit onto a hard drive stuck in the middle of the latest mp3 players. To add to the convenience, you can listen to your music through the little in-ear phones that come with the player. Convenient yes, quality of listening experience; not so sure on that one.
Just so you know, everyone in our house, me included, have some type of mp3 player. But the difference is that we have wav files (an uncompressed format) as opposed the compressed file format of mp3. And we all have a set of quality headphones. But to overcome the convenience and to be able to go back to a certain level of quality, there was a hefty cost involved.
Convenience has also filtered into our communication process as well. There has been an ongoing evolutionary process and some would say, technological breakthrough that is at the core of this.
What am I talking about?
Face to face communication or at the very least, a telephone call is almost a thing of the past. Talking to someone either in person or by phone, old school, out of date, inconvenient, slows me down too much.
These days communication is done in a special language that takes no time to deliver. It is done at the push of some buttons. Today's communication is all about txt/sms or emails.
Now I am all for innovation and progress, but only if the new is better than the old and as I said, it is everyone's individual choice as to wether what has eventuated in each of these situations is better or not.
However, I think we can all agree each of these situations (and many more like them) are certainly more convenient, but on the other hand I cant help but think as the level of convenience has increased, the level of quality has been reduced from what it was in the past.
2. Rights v Responsibility
Political correctness, equal opportunity, anti discrimination were all set up for legitimate reasons and with the best intentions at heart. Unfortunately for some individuals, they were being put in a situation where their individual rights were not being observed, recognised, respected and upheld and they were basically being told to forget their rights and start accepting a certain direction to do things that basically were unfair and unjust.
In these situations, I can completely understand how and why someone would play the - I have rights' card. I would do it myself and my guess is so would you.
But what about the other side of the coin? Think about how many instances in today's society where someone will trot out the old - I have rights' line (and they would be right) when they are being questioned as to why something that is their responsibility, has either not been done or has not been done to the standard required.
Think about situations where it isn't even a responsibility, it is just the right thing to do and people still play the old tune of I have the right.
Think about the situation of a younger person sitting on the public transport whilst an older woman stands. The reality is the younger person does have a right to sit, they paid the same price for the opportunity to utilise the transport and all it has to offer.
But somewhere in all of this doesn't responsibility, values, and manners hint to the fact that at the very least, the seat should be offered to the older lady. Doesn't common courtesy, do the right thing in this instance overtake the right to remain seated?
For some it is not about courtesy, manners or the element of kindness. To them it is just another opportunity to walk away from some level or type of responsibility because they are protected by either their rights or by the fact that no-one has the right to ask them to do it another way.
Just today in the middle of writing this article, I had to go down to my local Bunnings store (a national hardware chain). A beautiful autumn day, pretty much predicts that there will be people everywhere at the mall where my local Bunnings store is situated. And today was no different, the prediction, once again proves to be correct. Not a single car park in sight. But today is our lucky day, just as we drive into the car park, a car pulls out we slip straight into the park and we are good to go.
But here is the kicker in this story.
As we walk out of Bunnings, a car pulls up and parks in the disabled car park, right next to the main entrance to the store. One disabled park in a thousand or so car parks and the guy that parks in the disabled car park, jumps out of his car and walks straight into the light shop next door. This guy was no more disabled than I am.
The attitude shown was not about rights, it was about doing the right thing and doing things right. It is about a responsibility to do the right thing by others.
Because in the end, it shouldn't be about ether rights or responsibility. It should be about an individuals character that guides them to do what is right. The funny thing here is that a lot of this rights erasing responsible behavior is not done by bad people. It is just the situation or what is at stake that brings out the worst in really good people.
Think about people getting ready for the boarding call on an airline with unassigned seating? Think about before the doors open on sale day at your local department store.
These situations for whatever reason bring out the worst behavior in really good people and as it does, responsibility goes out the window and rights are at the forefront of behavioral influence.
But where does the need for this type of behavior come from? As I said the majority of times, this behavior, the need to play the rights card, call it what you will, doesn't necessarily come from bad people, it comes from good people behaving badly.
Does it come from previous experience. And therefore:
Does it come from the mindset of kill or be killed?
Is it a case of do unto others as I have had done unto me?
Does it reflect a survival of the fittest mentality?
To be honest, I don't know why people do these things. I don't know why they think this way. But I do know at times like those I have described, and the attitudes and behaviors we have outlined, I don't like what I am seeing.
3. Learning v Education
Bill, I go to school to learn. Yeah, so does everybody else in your school. Not really, you see most people go to school to learn enough to pass an exam. I go to school to learn, I expose myself to as many different subjects and experiences as I can. I am interested in passing exams, but I am more interested in learning.
This was part of a conversation I had with one of my coaching clients. A young 16 year old girl that I was working with to get through the trials and tribulations of the teenage years.
It was this discussion that really got me thinking about how much emphasis there is on learning these days, but at the same time there is corresponding decrease in the area of education.
Now, when I say education, I am not talking about 2+2=4. I am talking about the opportunities for kids to be educated about the things that will probably not be included in a school exam, but will be right at the heart of the hardest test of all. The test of life.
Education on such topics as:
These are all areas that we all need to not only survive, but to prosper in an ever changing world.
But how did we end up in this position? How did we loose sight of the need for both education and learning?
Not sure, and to be honest I am not into pointing the finger of blame, but I think that it would be progress to go back to the future. That is true and expansive education of our children as opposed to just teaching them enough to pass an exam.
We are failing them by not showing them the true realities of life. We have to get away from some of the things that are slowly creeping into our approach to the youth of the world. Things such as:
Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying learning is bad, but I am saying that there needs to be a mixture of learning and education to fully prepare a teenager to the full gamete of exams that life is going to throw their way.
Once again, it is not about showing them gloom and doom, but it is about letting them see, understand and prepare on how to deal with realities of the world, and how to enjoy everything that life has to offer, the good the bad and the ugly.
The Journey Continues!
From what you are witnessing first hand, what things are changing, or what differences can you see in the world that you don't think are necessarily for the better?
I will do my best to condense my answer down to a number of areas that I continue to see on a day to day basis. In doing so, I hope these are relevant to you and your world?
To begin my reply, I would like to point out that in a lot of the situations, I continue to see and experience is that in many instances, change does not necessarily mean progress.
So with that said, let's take a look at the three areas I have selected.
1. Quality v Convenience
I'm not about making things harder, and at the same time, I am not about compromising quality either, but the quick fix formula seems to have filtered into so many aspects of modern day life and the convenience factor is not too far behind it.
Each and everyone of us has the opportunity, the right and the ability to make our own decisions about what is good/bad or right/wrong for us and what we want.
But are we slowly, slowly continuing to drift more towards the convenient as opposed to the quality?
Let's take a look at few situations so you get an idea of where I am coming from when I ask that question:
For a long time we would not find it out of place to stand in line to order a sandwich or the like for lunch. You walk up, stand in line, have a conversation with someone around you and then when it is your turn you place your order.
The person you have placed your order with either personally or passes the order onto someone else, who then takes quality fresh ingredients and puts together a meal that you take great delight and nutritional benefit from devouring. All in all, it probably took five minutes from order to chow time.
These days things have changed in the world of takeaway food and changed on two different fronts in the name of convenience. On one tangent, you don't need to walk up to place your food order, in fact chances are you don't even have to get out of your car.
All you do is just go into the drive thru lane, stop at the walky talky post, place your order, drive through to the next window, pay for your order and then drive to the last window and there it is a quick convenient meal.
On the second, the food that gets handed to you through your car window is mass produced and pre prepared to provide you with this convenience.
The down side to this little scenario is the nutritional quality of the food. The upside is the convenience.
Before we move on, I think it only fair to give some credit where credit is due. Some of these fast food companies have tried to expand their menu and in the process, increase the nutritional content of their meals. Are they there yet? Well, that is the part that is and will continue to be open for debate.
But let's move on:
As a teenager I would spend many hours going to HI FI shops listening to new turntables, high end valve amplifiers, reel to reel tapes being played through precision speakers. The result? A wonderful listening experience.
These days though it is all about 8,000 songs compressed to the daylights, so they can fit onto a hard drive stuck in the middle of the latest mp3 players. To add to the convenience, you can listen to your music through the little in-ear phones that come with the player. Convenient yes, quality of listening experience; not so sure on that one.
Just so you know, everyone in our house, me included, have some type of mp3 player. But the difference is that we have wav files (an uncompressed format) as opposed the compressed file format of mp3. And we all have a set of quality headphones. But to overcome the convenience and to be able to go back to a certain level of quality, there was a hefty cost involved.
Convenience has also filtered into our communication process as well. There has been an ongoing evolutionary process and some would say, technological breakthrough that is at the core of this.
What am I talking about?
Face to face communication or at the very least, a telephone call is almost a thing of the past. Talking to someone either in person or by phone, old school, out of date, inconvenient, slows me down too much.
These days communication is done in a special language that takes no time to deliver. It is done at the push of some buttons. Today's communication is all about txt/sms or emails.
Now I am all for innovation and progress, but only if the new is better than the old and as I said, it is everyone's individual choice as to wether what has eventuated in each of these situations is better or not.
However, I think we can all agree each of these situations (and many more like them) are certainly more convenient, but on the other hand I cant help but think as the level of convenience has increased, the level of quality has been reduced from what it was in the past.
2. Rights v Responsibility
Political correctness, equal opportunity, anti discrimination were all set up for legitimate reasons and with the best intentions at heart. Unfortunately for some individuals, they were being put in a situation where their individual rights were not being observed, recognised, respected and upheld and they were basically being told to forget their rights and start accepting a certain direction to do things that basically were unfair and unjust.
In these situations, I can completely understand how and why someone would play the - I have rights' card. I would do it myself and my guess is so would you.
But what about the other side of the coin? Think about how many instances in today's society where someone will trot out the old - I have rights' line (and they would be right) when they are being questioned as to why something that is their responsibility, has either not been done or has not been done to the standard required.
Think about situations where it isn't even a responsibility, it is just the right thing to do and people still play the old tune of I have the right.
Think about the situation of a younger person sitting on the public transport whilst an older woman stands. The reality is the younger person does have a right to sit, they paid the same price for the opportunity to utilise the transport and all it has to offer.
But somewhere in all of this doesn't responsibility, values, and manners hint to the fact that at the very least, the seat should be offered to the older lady. Doesn't common courtesy, do the right thing in this instance overtake the right to remain seated?
For some it is not about courtesy, manners or the element of kindness. To them it is just another opportunity to walk away from some level or type of responsibility because they are protected by either their rights or by the fact that no-one has the right to ask them to do it another way.
Just today in the middle of writing this article, I had to go down to my local Bunnings store (a national hardware chain). A beautiful autumn day, pretty much predicts that there will be people everywhere at the mall where my local Bunnings store is situated. And today was no different, the prediction, once again proves to be correct. Not a single car park in sight. But today is our lucky day, just as we drive into the car park, a car pulls out we slip straight into the park and we are good to go.
But here is the kicker in this story.
As we walk out of Bunnings, a car pulls up and parks in the disabled car park, right next to the main entrance to the store. One disabled park in a thousand or so car parks and the guy that parks in the disabled car park, jumps out of his car and walks straight into the light shop next door. This guy was no more disabled than I am.
The attitude shown was not about rights, it was about doing the right thing and doing things right. It is about a responsibility to do the right thing by others.
Because in the end, it shouldn't be about ether rights or responsibility. It should be about an individuals character that guides them to do what is right. The funny thing here is that a lot of this rights erasing responsible behavior is not done by bad people. It is just the situation or what is at stake that brings out the worst in really good people.
Think about people getting ready for the boarding call on an airline with unassigned seating? Think about before the doors open on sale day at your local department store.
These situations for whatever reason bring out the worst behavior in really good people and as it does, responsibility goes out the window and rights are at the forefront of behavioral influence.
But where does the need for this type of behavior come from? As I said the majority of times, this behavior, the need to play the rights card, call it what you will, doesn't necessarily come from bad people, it comes from good people behaving badly.
Does it come from previous experience. And therefore:
Does it come from the mindset of kill or be killed?
Is it a case of do unto others as I have had done unto me?
Does it reflect a survival of the fittest mentality?
To be honest, I don't know why people do these things. I don't know why they think this way. But I do know at times like those I have described, and the attitudes and behaviors we have outlined, I don't like what I am seeing.
3. Learning v Education
Bill, I go to school to learn. Yeah, so does everybody else in your school. Not really, you see most people go to school to learn enough to pass an exam. I go to school to learn, I expose myself to as many different subjects and experiences as I can. I am interested in passing exams, but I am more interested in learning.
This was part of a conversation I had with one of my coaching clients. A young 16 year old girl that I was working with to get through the trials and tribulations of the teenage years.
It was this discussion that really got me thinking about how much emphasis there is on learning these days, but at the same time there is corresponding decrease in the area of education.
Now, when I say education, I am not talking about 2+2=4. I am talking about the opportunities for kids to be educated about the things that will probably not be included in a school exam, but will be right at the heart of the hardest test of all. The test of life.
Education on such topics as:
- How to survive in a tough environment
- How to take responsibility for your own actions
- How to get knocked on your backside and get back up and go harder the second time around
- How to make the right decisions
- How to work with others but never lose sight of who you are
- How to remain true to yourself
These are all areas that we all need to not only survive, but to prosper in an ever changing world.
But how did we end up in this position? How did we loose sight of the need for both education and learning?
Not sure, and to be honest I am not into pointing the finger of blame, but I think that it would be progress to go back to the future. That is true and expansive education of our children as opposed to just teaching them enough to pass an exam.
We are failing them by not showing them the true realities of life. We have to get away from some of the things that are slowly creeping into our approach to the youth of the world. Things such as:
- Marking a paper in red pen will hurt their self esteem.
- Grading an exam will set them back for the rest of their life
- Competitive sport will not make them a win at all cost ego maniac
- Expectation that comes with school is probably nothing to what life will expect of them.
- Reality TV reflects the real life of about 0.1% of the population.
Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying learning is bad, but I am saying that there needs to be a mixture of learning and education to fully prepare a teenager to the full gamete of exams that life is going to throw their way.
Once again, it is not about showing them gloom and doom, but it is about letting them see, understand and prepare on how to deal with realities of the world, and how to enjoy everything that life has to offer, the good the bad and the ugly.
The Journey Continues!
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