I love taking scientific phenomena and using them to explain business behaviors. Entropy has been my favorite for a long time but gravity is making a hard run. Talking to a colleague yesterday they mentioned the years we had worked together and how life has its gravity.
*BAM*
Just like that it hit me how easy it is to get bogged down in past success to limit what we do in the future. I like to think that I’m not just open to change but a proponent of it. But thinking through change on a smaller level made me realize that, unlike in nature, gravity in business is strongest on person-to-person levels than on the business level. It’s much harder for me to change how I deal with individual people than for how I deal with groups, businesses, customers or other collections of people.
Change and growth needs to happen on every level. If people can change over time then don’t our responses and interactions with them need to change as well? But are we getting stuck in our habits such that we aren’t taking advantage of this change? Gravity is the effect of two objects attracting each other – its a force that brings things closer and makes it harder to pull them away. This concept works beautifully with human relationships.
We all prefer to deal with people that we like and get along with best. When dealing with individuals this often trumps working with people that may be the best or most efficient to work with. But this isn’t always for the best.
My thoughts are a bit scattered on the topic still even after mulling it over for a few days but there definitely seems to be something here.