Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Any change to a situation will change the situation. It is often difficult to discern which came first.

When a new person walks into an existing group of people, that group changes. There is no way around this—at least I know of no way around it. To have a new person without change, I would have to find a person who is exactly like the persons who are already here. I don’t know how to find such an exact match in a person.

In a reverse, round-about way, a change in a situation means that someone has changed something. For example, several years ago I was part of a group of cars driving to a soccer game. One person’s car did not start. The car worked fine two days before. One day before, the car was in an auto shop where they “did something.” Of course, the fault in the car was caused by the auto shop.

That car problem was easy to diagnose as there had only been one change made to the car, and that change happened one day earlier.

One day we notice that an organization of a hundred people is different. What was the change that brought the difference? I don’t know how to discover the answer as there are too many people and too many days and too much that could change. (I can easily find persons who “know” what change brought about the organization’s change. I quickly dismiss those people as being overly optimistic in their powers of observation.)

So, write this down:

(A) If a situation has changed, it is because someone changed it.

Also, write this one down:

(B) If you want a situation to change, change something.

If you know someone who can always find the one little change that will lead to the desired big change (from (B) above), please introduce that person to me. I really need them.