I’m sure many of the people who attended KalamazooX will approach their careers this week with a renewed sense of purpose. If you haven’t been to KalX, you really need to check it out because it is a great, single day conference focused on the heart and soul of software developers. Every year speakers share deep, personal, insightful, and meaningful stories that inspire attendees to seek significant change in their own lives.
Until the sessions of the 2014 edition of KalamazooX are out, hopefully this talk I gave there in 2013 on ‘Enacting Change’ will be of some benefit to you.
Fearing change is natural and normal for us as humans, but it’s no way to go through life. We’ve been coached and cajoled into embracing change because it’s inescapable, but unfortunately not all change is good. The world is full of people with stupid ideas who are somehow in positions of greater influence and power than we are.
Fortunately getting people to help enact the change you believe in is not a matter of happenstance, luck, or sheer authoritative power. If the change you envision is truly worthwhile to others, how are you going to make sure you pull them into the cause? This session uses real world examples from parasitic worms to subway cars in order to demonstrate how a few key behaviors can mean the difference between enacting lasting change or a lifetime of embracing the change of others.
Also, here are the slides, hosted on SpeakerDeck:
