So, this book opens with a fantastic question, “Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses?”, a question apparently asked of President Obama. For me, this sets the tone for the rest of the book – drawing you in from the start with a different lens on change to the typical books I’ve read on this subject.
Tom is described as an ‘applied futurist’ and this is the perspective he takes to this topic – a really refreshing change (no pun intended) – which helps get you inspired by this subject even if you think you’re change-weary. It’s split into three sections – ‘How Change has Changed’, ‘Athletic Organisations’ and ‘The Human Response’ which makes it a really straightforward read (again, a big plus against some of the other books I usually read on the subject of change).
He takes the opportunity to explore and challenge some of our current thinking around change, examining ‘large-scale, long wavelength changes’ versus the duck-sized horses, which move rapidly and can turn big industries upside down equally quickly. Perhaps most interesting for me of all the topics covered, is his brief exploration of the contradiction I’ve often found bewildering in change. This is the difference between “the standard human condition”, where we push back and raise concerns about corporate change (‘neophobic’) and which opposes our natural state of loving the new and innovation (‘neophile’).
Be prepared - Tom uses examples from unexpected perspectives, including athletics, washing machines and anthropaleontology to amplify his ideas, rather than the usual work-related analogies.
Throughout, he poses questions and shares ideas that provoke different thinking to change, rather than offering prescriptive frameworks and approaches. He talks about sex and relationships (which I wasn’t expecting to read in a book about change) in the same chapter as robots (which I definitely was).
For me, change does feel quicker than before, but through this book, I’ve got an idea why and, more importantly, how we – and organisations - can be better prepared for this. As he outlines, change is like a wave – it has amplitude and frequency.
This is a great start in the journey to learning how to navigate these lower amplitude higher frequency waves of change we’re now facing. For organisations, this will be about greater agility, decentralisation and increased delegation and understanding that leadership is about making space for collaboration and innovation and looking out for the next change.
This is a pacey, reflective and engaging read, peppered with metaphors, scenarios and examples to illustrate points, which inspired more and different thinking about one of my favourite topics. Change management doesn’t hold all the answers to help us cope with increasingly rapid change – we do.
Finally, for those of you who are interested, apparently President Obama didn’t have an answer to the question of ducks and horses.