Thank You, Keep the Change

I heard this expression the other day and I could not help but think how that expression has changed over the years.  First and foremost, who pays with cash anymore, and secondly who even carries cash? This world over the last several years has changed so significantly from how we pay for goods and services to how we even order our pizza.  So, it got me to thinking, how does Change play a part in our every day lives at work and how we service our customers?Over the last 30-40 years we have seen changes to our everyday lives that may have gone unnoticed as large changes.  The “drive-thru”, the “pay at the pump” and the expansion of movies from Beta to VHS to DVD to On Demand.  Our everyday lives have changed slowly, and people have adapted as time has moved on.Then, I started thinking of the change in the last 10 years or so that has been rapidly expanding.  For instance, the use of cell phones replacing land lines, web access on these phones and now an app for everything that you can imagine.  The personal computer, which was a major change both in business and home, has been replaced by the phone and tablet.  Phones, with their current technology, can do anything that you can imagine from paying bills, giving directions and even tell you what’s playing at the movies!

What does all this change mean?

Technology today ensures that change will be perpetual.  Millennials who have grown up with technology seem to have a much easier time adapting as Apps are constantly changing, Software Upgrades are a way of life and Social Media is booming.  Baby boomers find it more difficult to adapt to this technology as they have seen everything from the first black and white TV to the iPad Pro.  With these folks, change is constant and sometimes difficult.  One thing is for sure though that constant change and adapting to that change is not going away.So, we know what has happened in the past, what about the future.  What kind of change will we expect to see in the next 30-50 years and how will that affect our lives? One change that will take place is how we grow our food, it is expected that vertical farming will expand while taking place indoors.  Technology will explode and, in many cases, start doing the work that humans perform today.  The expansion of Artificial Intelligence, self-driving cars, in-home patient monitoring of health, self-monitoring biosensors and medicines personalized to a person’s individual DNA.  These are all potential.  All this change and technological advances can be mind-boggling.

In looking at change over the last 50 years there is only one thing that is certain, that the future is uncertain and that if you’re through changing….you’re through.