The World Changed

Over the years Dan Pink has been a bit of a hero of mine so when I had the chance to join him for Breakfast at Soho House on one of his trips to London there was no hesitation. I asked Dan whether he felt that, in order to drive behavior change, it was important to change the intrinsic beliefs of the individual to ensure the change was embedded?

I am not averse to a few layers of clothes when flying. Partly because I get cold on planes but mainly because I’m normally at my baggage limit so have to wear everything I cannot fit into my case. Therefore airport security is almost always… time consuming.  It’s hard to carry off a ‘cool, calm and collected’ air as you strip down and unload half your attire into a little plastic tray and wait (in at least your second queue of the day) with all the other bare footed, odd socked or heaven forbid...  holey socked travellers. 

  Once upon a time (well a couple of weeks ago) I was babysitting for my niece and nephews which, come bed time, meant reading book after book (after book) with four year old Evie. Snuggled up on her bunk, we read about all the Disney princesses and it began to dawn on me how every book is geared towards the princess finding her prince and living happily ever after. Oh how marvellous to begin programming a child of four to seek romantic perfection in her future. Even the beast, who one might assume represents the importance and value of character over physical beauty turns out to be as handsome as Christian Grey in the end. Lucky Belle.  

The change equation is a wonderful tool. First created by Gleicher and published by Beckhard and Harris it was originally: C = (ABD) > X . I’m not a massive fan of equations at the best of times but when there is only one letter even remotely representing its intended subject I become even less enamoured. For those that want to know…

  It sounds rather profound, perhaps a little dramatic and certainly impactful. The world changed Three words which conjure up different images to different people.  I asked some friends, colleagues and contacts what these three words made them think of. I wasn't prescriptive in my question, I said the answer could be absolutely anything - whatever sprung to mind. Here are the responses I received: