There's been enough writing done on how change will always be a part of life and how we will need to embrace it or be conquered by it. Fair enough. In a world where the average time a company is in the S&P 500 ( a stock market measure) has shrunk from 33 years to less than 20 years, you can see that change effects, people, businesses and so much more at a pace not yet seen. Yes, those not adapting to change are often getting left behind.
But why? Why do we need to change? We get that the way we've always done it may not work anymore, but why? Honestly, I have never had a great answer for this until this week. Ironically, it's simplistic enough to write, a little bit of an oxymoron, but it sure seems to work. Credit for this idea has to go to Cordel Robinson. He is the Pastor of Leadership Development at the church my family attends and his message this past week really made me see the why behind why change is essential. "The key to growing old is living new." That's it. That's why. While Mr. Robinson was speaking to the spiritual side of things, the truth is, that's why we have to change in education, or any other industry. The key to growing old (which we'll define as becoming rooted and established as a school, district or industry) is to live new, Think about it. It's how we're designed as humans. From the time of our birth until the time of our death, our bodies spend our entire lives making us new again. You shed your entire top layer of your skin about once per month. Your body replenishes over 200 billion red blood cells per day. You shed your baby teeth for your permanent teeth. Your hair goes from... well, we won't go there. You get my point. It's our human design. We grow old by living new. Education has to do the same, we have to grow old by living new. That's why we have to continue to change, often times at a rate we're not comfortable with. While we might wish we could slow down sometimes, at least we're not responsible for rebuilding something 200 billion times a day.
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AuthorJeff Lahey Archives
January 2020
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