Jolt!

by Phil Cooke

  • 25 percent of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video . . . on their phone.

  • In the near future we will no longer search for products and services, they will find us via social media.

  At the start of 2010, marketing expert Seth Godin called the upcoming ten years the decade of change and frustration. As Seth elaborated on his online blog:

  Change: The infrastructure of massive connection is now real. People around the world have cell phones. The first Internet generation is old enough to spend money, go to work, and build companies. Industries are being built every day (and old ones are fading). The revolution is in full swing, and an entire generation is eager to change everything because of it. Hint: it won’t look like the last one with a few bells and whistles added.

  Frustration: Baby boomers are getting old. Dreams are fading, and so is health. Boomers love to whine, and we love to imagine that we’ll live forever and accomplish everything. This is the decade that reality kicks in. And, to top it off, savings are thin and resource availability isn’t what it used to be. A lot of people ate their emergency rations during the last decade. Look for this frustration to be acted out in public, and often. (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/)

  In so many ways, media and technology have overtaken our lives, and along with great benefits, they have also brought great frustration. We can’t escape the advertisements from video monitors embedded in gas pumps and elevators. We used to fear “billboard jungles” in major cities, but today, technology is allowing companies to target us far more effectively—often without our even realizing it’s happened. In fact, some researchers indicate that we’re being exposed to the phenomenal number of five thousand media messages per person, per day.

  That barrage is impacting our behavior. For instance, people answer mobile phones in the most inappropriate places. My wife, Kathleen, and I attended a wedding recently where a member of the audience refused to take off his wireless Bluetooth earpiece. As the church lights dimmed for the wedding procession, he sat there with the little blue light blinking away in his ear like some cheap disco ball. I wondered what phone call could be so important that he couldn’t even take off his earpiece for the bride’s entrance.

  Our close friend Fred Applegate is a respected musical theater performer in major roles on Broadway in shows like The Sound of Music, The Producers, and Young Frankenstein. One night during a performance, the cast was interrupted by a cell phone ringing in the audience. To the astonishment of everyone in the theater, the patron actually took the call! The actors paused onstage to hear the audience member say in a loud voice: “Hello? No, I can’t talk. I’m at a Broadway show.”

  » THE INVASION OF TECHNOLOGY—ESPECIALLY IN THE HANDS OF STUPID PEOPLE—IS A HORRIFYING THOUGHT INDEED.

  But it’s more than technology that’s changing. As I write this, we’re experiencing a major financial recession. As a result, most people are cutting back financially in key areas to weather the storm. But according to a recent poll, 32 percent of respondents said they’re spending less across the board. More telling, however, is that these consumers expect this cutback to be their “new normal pattern” for the future. One study found that 75 percent have altered their purchasing in the last year. While some have traded down, most seem to have evolved into a completely new lifestyle. Steve McClellan quoted David Kenny, an advertising agency executive: “People are going to emerge from the current recession forever changed.”

  » THE RECESSION IS NOW, BUT DISRUPTION IS THE “NEW NORMAL.”

  That’s why it’s so critical for all of us to master the principles that will allow us to survive and thrive in the culture of disruption that is rapidly becoming our future.

  I’m a writer, filmmaker, and media producer, and I started my career directing television programs. I’m a cofounder of a television production company in Los Angeles, as well as a company that focuses on helping nonprofit organizations use the media more effectively. I’m not a doomsayer. I’m an enthusiastic media user and probably value my iPhone, iPad, and laptop as much as anyone. But the truth is, we’re living in the midst of the greatest shift in our culture since the invention of the printing press. And it’s not the calm eye of a hurricane; it’s the heart of the storm—the belly of the beast. As I write this, America is experiencing one of the most serious recessions in its history, changes in technology are disrupting our lives, and cultural norms that have held true for millennia are eroding before our eyes. We’re losing family, cultural, and religious frameworks that have stabilized and supported earlier generations.

  NAVIGATING THE WORLD OF DISRUPTIVE CHANGE

  Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony.

  In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

  —ALBERT EINSTEIN

  How do we choose to deal with these radical changes in our culture and in our lives? Do we follow the Luddites, who in early-nineteenth-century Britain rebelled against mechanizing the textile industry by destroying looms they felt were leaving them without work and changing their entire way of life? Or do we just let go and allow technology to overtake us in a wave and wash us away like a boat with no rudder?

  You probably have examples of both camps right in your own neighborhood or your company. Some think an answering machine is radical technology and still refuse to use a computer. I have a pastor friend who won’t buy a mobile phone, fearing both the loss of personal space and the ability to find privacy in a cluttered world. On the other extreme, I have close friends who are “gadget addicted.” They have standing orders for the latest wide-screen TV, mobile device, or computer. They scan the Internet daily for the next big thing.

  I’m not crazy about either approach, and that’s why this book is about a third way.

  » I BELIEVE IT’S POSSIBLE TO NAVIGATE THE CULTURAL SHIFT WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SOUL.

  We don’t have to trade our freedom for connectivity, our values for financial success, or our devotion to God for our commitment to technology. Perhaps more important, we can actually embrace this radical disruption and make it work for us.

  The secret is understanding the power of change.

  There is comfort in chaos.

  —JEREMY GUTSCHE, EXPLOITING CHAOS

  A “jolt” is a shock, a disturbance, an abrupt change. It shakes things up and realigns our thinking. Like the Reset button on a computer, it cleans out the clutter that was slowing us down and allows us to start fresh.

  In today’s world of overwhelming disruption, if we can understand the power of change and how to make it work for us, it will allow us to take back the control of our lives. We can make the right choices, rather than having choices forced on us.

  » EITHER WE TAKE BACK CONTROL, OR WE’LL SPEND THE REST OF OUR LIVES AT THE MERCY OF OTHER PEOPLE WHO WILL DO IT FOR US.

  The truth is, we all have things we want to change—we’d like to make more money, advance in our careers, find a husband or wife, turn the company around, become better leaders, have a better education, live in a different place, change our perspectives on living, change the dynamics of our marriages, find God, stop smoking or drinking, lose weight, get in shape, and more. The dream that we can change our lives is always out there, lurking behind the growing speed of our day-to-day living.

  On the other hand, change is sometimes thrust upon us. We’re often forced to change, but we’re just not ready. Maybe you have been fired or laid off or passed over for a promotion; perhaps you can’t sell your dream project, your spouse has left you, or the fire has gone out of your marriage; possibly you have a serious health problem, are losing your business, or just can’t find a good reason to go on living. When change is forced on you, you have to respond with—you guessed it—more change.

  Everyone needs to change something. The problem is, we just don’t know how.

  Our bosses, boards of directors, spouses, doctors, friends, and even our pastors, priests, or rabbis all tell us we need to change. Sometimes they can eve
n get us excited about the possibilities and make us genuinely want to change. But when the excitement wears off, we’re back to the same place all over again.

  How do we actually change our lives?

  What are the steps we need to take to make a difference and start over again?

  How do we get from where we are to where we want to be?

  That’s what this book is about. I’m not interested in getting you “amped up,” excited, or in a frenzy to change. Lots of books can do that—but when the excitement is over, you’re left in the same rut as before.

  This book is different from anything you’ve ever read. I’m going to show you step-by-step how to change your life or your organization (or both) in the context of today’s disrupted world. It’s far more than a simplistic self-help book, but on the other hand it’s not a complex business book filled with jargon, diagrams, and intricate strategies that only a PhD could understand. The bottom line is that whatever the problem, challenge, or obstacle you face—or how chaotic or overwhelming your life may be—I believe the unique approach in this book will help you take the concrete steps to jolt your life and make real change happen.

  Stop focusing on the problem and start focusing on the change.

  Once it happens to you, it can happen to everyone around you. Thirty years of making change happen in organizations across America has taught me that companies and organizations don’t change until people change.

  » YOU DON’T CHANGE ORGANIZATIONS WITHOUT CHANGING PEOPLE.

  It’s never too late to be who you might have been.

  —GEORGE ELIOT, AUTHOR

  I work in the media industry, where I see many who originally dreamed of being writers, actors, directors, or producers discover the difficulty of making those dreams come true. In Los Angeles, sometimes it seems as if every waiter, bookstore clerk, or bank teller is really an actor looking for his or her big break.

  The truth is, people from all walks of life are desperate for change. When Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” he was talking about the difficult search for change and the sad truth that most people have simply given up on the possibility.

  You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

  —MAHATMA GANDHI

  I’ve spent my career working with organizations that have hit a wall. I get the call when their product sales are flat, audience response has fallen, or their markets have evolved. But it took me years to discover that my real calling is shaking up people’s thinking and making change happen.

  As a result, I become a “spark” or a “catalyst” that changes leaders’ perspectives and, hopefully, transforms their approach to business. I help them through the difficult process of change, in order for them to stay competitive and keep up with evolving trends, customers, and audiences.

  I’ve been doing this for decades, and early on I realized it wasn’t an organizational problem—it was a people problem. Jeff Hawkins, the creator of the first Palm handheld PDA, said, “Companies don’t innovate, people do.” Certainly many organizations have outdated policies, rules, and processes that need to be updated. For many, it has become a culture of monotony—the assumed way that employees are supposed to react, think, and process issues. But the fact is, all organizations are driven by people, and I’ve discovered that if you just look hard enough, you’ll find those crazy policies, outdated rules, and cultural problems all began with a person, and it’s people who continue to breed that type of thinking.

  So I turned my focus away from the organizations themselves and more toward the people who lead them.

  That research and study resulted in the journey that you’re beginning. It can’t be denied: change is hard.

  It’s difficult to do well, and it’s even harder to develop a lifestyle of change. As I’ve developed this process, marketing teams, creative teams, and even church groups have worked through the process with amazing results.

  Either way, if you can master these relatively simple techniques, you can discover the infinite promise that change can bring into your life and into your organization.

  It’s time to look forward.

  As Leonard Sweet said in SoulTsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture: “The Dick-and-Jane world of my ’50’s childhood is over, washed away by a tsunami of change. Some technologies function as deluges that sweep all before it; some technologies are most like winter storms that swell the rivers of change. Electronics is the former. It has created a sea change such as the world has never experienced before”(17).

  Leonard Sweet was right. A revolution of change is not only moving forward, but it is gaining momentum. Talking backstage at a national conference years ago, I proudly told him that our generation grew up writing letters, but we’ve recognized the need to change, so we switched to e-mail. But he laughed and reminded me of our children, who believe e-mail is far too old-fashioned (it’s really just an electronic version of a letter) and not “instant” enough for a new generation.

  Change never stops.

  THE CRIPPLING POWER OF DENIAL

  What is now proved was once impossible.

  —WILLIAM BLAKE, POET

  What do most people do in the face of disruption and chaos?

  Most ignore it. You have no idea how many people I’ve counseled and consulted with who refuse to face the fact that change is happening and transforming the way we do everything. These people have a remarkable ability to deny the truth and ignore what’s happening in the world around them. They actually do exist, and I’ve discovered most are miserable people—having exchanged the unknown for a life of monotony, sameness, and boredom.

  But America will never again be the picket-fence culture of the fifties. Business, religion, media, politics, values, morality, and even family have all changed. The debate over whether those changes have been good or bad is another book, but what’s most important now is that we realize change has happened and this culture is never going back.

  BORN INTO CHANGE

  My family has always been a long line of people who hated change. Born in a small mill town in rural North Carolina, I experienced firsthand how people can build an entire life without the slightest variation. For generations, my family all worked at a cotton mill, making sheets and towels. For her entire working life, my aunt worked in what they called the “sheet room,” folding and packaging bedsheets. My uncle worked in the “towel room” doing pretty much the exact same things with towels. The thought of moving to a different position never crossed their minds, and they literally held the same positions from the time they started their jobs after high school until they retired, decades later.

  My family loved uniformity. They would eat at the same restaurants, order the same food, attend the same church, and go to the same place every year on vacation. Working at the cotton mill was their existence, and nothing ever changed.

  At least until my father was born.

  Billy Cooke was a high school football star. A great athlete with an inquisitive nature, after graduation my dad lasted about a week at the mill. On his first day at the job, they gave him a big canvas hamper on wheels and had him push it from department to department, picking up all the irregular sheets and towels.

  Pushing that hamper one time around the mill was enough to tell him that life was more than sheets and towels. When the horn went off at the end of the shift, my father headed straight for the United States Marines recruiting office, where he signed up to be a soldier.

  He wanted out, and he knew the only way to change his life was to get as far away from the mill as he could.

  His family was shocked. World War II had just been declared, and it was certain that after his basic training, my father would be sent to the Pacific to fight the Japanese. But looking back, I believe the shock came more from his decision to walk away from the mill and its predictable lifestyle than from his joining the Marines. What about the regular paycheck? What about the benefits? No one walks away from
life at the mill!

  Talk about a jolt. My father joined the Marines, was assigned to the legendary First Marine Division, hit the beaches at Guadalcanal and other hot spots in the Pacific, and became a local hero—sending dispatches from the war back for a column in the community newspaper. Looking back, I imagine the only time he ever had second thoughts about going back to the mill was when he was frantically digging a foxhole under heavy enemy fire.

  After the war, he became our first family member to graduate from college. Then he attended seminary, became a voracious reader who had a personal library of more than five thousand volumes, received his PhD in theology, and became a successful pastor who founded and led numerous churches from North Carolina to Oklahoma.

  My father learned to love change.

  Occasionally I could see the tug of the “mill life” pulling at my dad. For instance, he loved to stay at a tacky, turquoise-colored hotel at the beach every summer, and it took us years to break him of that habit. In his later years, he had a thing for eating at restaurants where they have pictures of the food on the menus. But those little habits were nothing compared to the major life change of breaking from his past, having a vision for a new life, and pursuing that goal to the end.

  As a child, watching my father instilled in me a vision for change. My father discovered more direction and purpose for his life than any member of our family had ever done. We were also better off financially, and both my sister and I graduated from college. I followed in my father’s footsteps and earned my PhD and have been a change agent for millions of people through my work in television and the media. No one could have imagined the impact that one single decision my father made to leave the mill would have on his life and the lives of millions of others.

  In the same way, you have no idea how making a positive decision to jolt your thinking will impact you, your employees, associates, friends and family, and potentially millions of people you’ve never even met. Like ripples in a pond, a single changed life reverberates in ways you could never dream of and touches lives for generations to come.