Yesterday's lesson focused on two main themes:
1) Drivers of World Change
2) Change Management & Change Leadership
Drivers of World Change
For this particularly part of class we discussed the factors that result in change. One factor I found important was competition. Human beings, from centuries ago, seem to have a basic need for competition amongst others. Within SMU itself we see the competitiveness for class participation marks. On a larger scale, competition has contributed to the success of many countries and the introduction of life-changing innovations. For example, android's competition with iPhone has led to more and better android phones being introduced to the consumer market. I think that competition is one of the main drivers of change as competitiveness is a strong feeling that contributes to many of our actions. This eventually led to a discussion between what has been evolutionary and what has been revolutionary. Evolutionary indicates slow change in our world while revolutionary change indicates sudden change. The most unique type of change we were introduced to was disruptive change. Disruptive change are changes that occur that become irreversible once introduced. I found this to be the most important as these changes are the ones that stay for long term. For example the introduction of computers was disruptive as now we cannot live without computers and it changed our way of living. We are more computer based than paper based now. There have been many disruptive changes in our world that I think have impacted our world in an extreme manner.
Social Media
One of the presentations for this theme was on social media and the changes that have occurred within it. I thought this was particularly interesting as it addressed situations that are going on now. The presenter explained the change in social media from before to now. She brought up interesting points like how it is easier for us to find information. We have tools such as wikipedia at our disposal. Before research was based on books and took a long time to find but now we merely have to Google our information or look it up on wikipedia. In a sense, it's easier for us to find information but at the same we have to practice being our own personal editors. This means that everything that's found online cannot always be trusted and so we have to be cautious in what we believe. As a whole, I think this change in social media is beneficial as we have knowledge at our fingertips and the issue of trust is not too serious as all information can be verified if one puts the time into it.
Change Management & Change Leadership
For this section of class we learnt the difference between leadership and management. Leadership is the part where a person creates a new innovation while management is the implementation done in order for the innovation to work. Both must co-exist with one another as without an idea one cannot proceed and without the implementation the idea is not acted out. In this part of the lesson we were also introduced to the difference between the Traditional and Modern model. The traditional is one where a companies ides/innovations are only reviewed once in awhile while the modern model focuses constant renewal and improvement throughout the year. In our world, the modern model is really the only means to survive. If one does not focus on the modern model they will definitely be left behind. An example that I thought characterized this well was by prof. He explained how kodak invented the first digital camera but refused to sell it because of the fear that there film business would die. This shows how if one does not follow the modern model they could experience some tough times.
Video
I found that the video of the dancing guy illustrated the leadership idea quite well. It depicted a man who starts dancing crazily in a crowded area. He has the courage to start the movement but alone he is still just the crazy guy. He is only viewed as a leader once his followers join him. This made me think that what makes a leader is not only the idea but also the fact that they have followers. On a broader scale, Steve Jobs is viewed as a good leader because of the large scale of people following him and his product but if he didn't have all these people, most probably, he would be viewed as a poor leader. I thought the video illustrated the need for followers as well as leaders quite well. It demonstrates that not everyone has to be a leader and the followers are just as important.
Conclusion
Yesterday's lesson was packed with information and was a little overwhelming especially since we had just had TWC merely four days ago (Saturday) but I thought that the information was beneficial as a whole because it was both interesting and could be applied in real life. Hence, it was a good class overall but overwhelming.
rating: 9/10
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