I was in a meeting last week where some individuals had very real concerns.  Their job has been relatively the same for the last 10-15 years and with changes all around our organization they are truly wondering where their future lies in the organization.  As I listened to their concern it really hit me that this uncertainty travels to work with people all across the country and the world each day.  These individuals are afraid that the knowledge they have acquired over their career is now irrelevant and they were questioning, I think, if it is even possible for them to change and to learn something new.

My IT career started about 12 years ago.  Since then I have been through probably a half-dozen or more programming languages, operating systems, vendors, form factors, you name it.  The only thing that has ever been stable in my IT career is that some people love computers and some don’t.  That and change.  I have never been part of a change exempt IT environment and really wonder if one does exist.  I know that what I learn today is nearly irrelevant tomorrow.  The question is, how do you deal with that?

Early on in my tenure at REJIS it was easy to accuse me of jumping on the new hot technology bandwagon.  I did run with a few of them but in the end I have been a little more conservative when it comes to implementing.  I did not quit following those bleeding edge things because sooner or later they are relevant, even if for a short time.  Microsoft has an entire division devoted to this stuff and Microsoft itself are the ones driving some of the changes their own people get paid to keep up with.

I believe in order to deal with change we must constantly be changing ourselves.  What we know, what we think we know, even things we don’t even know that we know.  All of it has to be changing a little at a time in order to stay relevant.  And I’m not talking just about our skills or those tangible things that enable us in our trade.  At the core of who you are you should be challenging yourself each day to be sure of who you are and where you are going.  If this isn’t happening then one day the big change comes; maybe you saw it, maybe you didn’t, but either way you will be asking yourself the question: Am I ready to or is it time to do something else?

I am empathetic to those colleagues and I am hopeful someone can find new ways for them to move to another level and remain with the organization.  Ultimately the choice will be theirs.

This was also my reminder to keep from getting comfortable.  The only comfort we should have is to be comfortable being uncomfortable.  Anything else and we’re not on our toes making little changes to survive the big one.  It’s happening all around us and one day it will happen to you.  The real question is, what are you doing about it?

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