“We’re never going to change this slow again.”

I heard this from the keynote speaker, Rick Maher (Adaptive Human Capital) at a conference last November.

Let that sink in.

We’re never going to change this slow again.

This sounds like many organizations I’ve worked in. Maybe you feel the same way about your organization.

The pace of change is relentless and has been for as long as I’ve paid attention to it. In 2008, a much younger and less experienced me, read a report from IBM entitled The Enterprise of the Future, in which it was noted that global CEOs were concerned about their ability to manage the magnitude of change coming to their organizations.

“Organizations are bombarded by change, and many are struggling to keep up. Eight out of ten CEOs see significant change ahead, and yet the gap between expected change and the ability to manage it has almost tripled since our last Global CEO Study in 2006.”

IBM Global CEO Study 2008

That was 2008.

Although a lot has changed in the last decade and a half — more research, content, practitioners, training courses, certifications — little has changed. Organizations are still struggling with the volume and pace of change.

There are large initiatives that have people, funding, and leadership attention and then there’s everything else, happening all the time, every day. A small process improvement that someone has been tinkering with almost invisibly. A proposal caught in approval hell just trying to get started. Dozens more, or even hundreds, happening in every type of organization you can imagine.

Change is happening everywhere. All the time. All at once.

It can be exciting, inspiring, rewarding… and sometimes overwhelming, disappointing, and terrifying.

Kudos to each and every one of you who is stepping forward, putting your hand up, learning on the fly, and trying to be a changemaker… whether by title or not.

The workplace needs you more than ever.

Regardless of where we live or work, it’s change o’clock somewhere.