Of technology, change and habit!

Change being the only constant is oft quoted truism- we talk about it, we profess to be votaries of change, we urge others to embrace it all the time- there are change management consultants who revel in giving advice on managing change in organizations. But change is inevitably an emotional experience and depending upon how well we deal with it, we buld a certain confidence about dealing with it in the future or conversely shun it forever.

Let me explain with a simple example. Since the end of last year, we have been wanting to buy an ibook to go along with our ipod. We felt it was a cool thing to have and that we should use something else apart from microsoft products. We didn't think it would be a big deal making the switch. And so, yesterday, we bought an ibook, brought it home and promptly set about working on it. Suddenly, it seemed like a different world. Simple things three both me and my wife off. For example, the key 'delete' works like backspace and I still haven't figured how to make the words delete going forward. And this is just one of the many changes. The entire look was different, the feel was different- I felt somebody had given me a very different toy to work with. I struggled with basic commands as if I was learning computers for the first time. And even as we tried to instal the microsoft word, powerpoint and excel from the "Student- Teacher" edition of the Mac, and found ourselves unsuccessful, we got increasingly frustrated. And it was a Saturday evening- we could only reach the prerecorded voices of all tech support. We struggled gamely with commands that were on our fingertips all along till after midnight, both of us just gave up. We decided that we could not make the switch and would return our new machine. The penalty would be 99 dollars and it was a price that we would pay for trying to make a change and not being competent to do it. We were clearly more creatures of habit than we had thought ourselves to be.

Even as we hit the bed, the thought of having failed at making the switch rankled both of us and so we were up again- adn slowly but surely we found our way back- installing the office to begin with and as we got to something fimiliar- it began to feel like familiar territory. Suddenly, the doubts and fears were gone and we began to appreciate the more cool features of the Mac. It is still early day as yet but suffice it to say that we havent returned our machine and I am actually beginning to like the portability, the features and the just the layout of the Mac- it is refreshingly different.

We make such switches often, sometimes intended and sometimes they are thrust upon us. I guess what we need to do is figure out something familiar in there, try it out in the new set-up, get comfortable with it and then, try and make the bigger leap. I guess the battle is more in the head, not so much in the technology. Most often, the former is the most difficult battle to win. Tenacity is important but so is just the self belief that nothing is too difficult as not being able to make the switch. And the Mac is just an apt illustration. Of course, this blog comes from the new machine and the fact that it has nothing in bold, or italics is because I still haven't figured that out yet. But I will soon I guess.

We are indeed creatures of habit. However, we have tremendously flexible personalities too and given the right circumstances, we would love to keep moving on rather than staying put in one place. Doesn't that make life that much more exciting??!!!