These changes impact the finances of the society, and the financial implications of these changes will profoundly influence the direction of current programs and the development of new programs within the Society. Change, as I have experienced, is difficult to bring about and frequently more difficult to sustain. Because change creates discomfort, initiatives fail far more often than they succeed. However, ESA must make changes because the current structures of many of our enterprises are outdated and fail to meet members needs or preclude a quick response to new opportunities. The critical issue is time.
Timing is everything.
The rapidly increasing velocity of change warps organizational time and space, bending the very shape of our enterprise. We cannot wait as we have in the past to make strategic decisions. A major obstacle to embracing rapid change is that it requires people to unlearn old behaviors if they are to benefit from new learning. Old habits become a de facto barrier to change until they are unlearned. Unlearning sounds easy.