Image by onkel_wart via Flickr

The turbulence caused by the economy is just one part of a deeper, broader change that is sweeping the globe.  Look at all the transformational change that we’ve experienced the past few months:

• This global recession/depression
• Obama’s election
• Realizing that the way we’ve been doing business just doesn’t work
• Admitting that our health care systems, our education systems and so much more are broken and unsustainable as they are
• Realizing that we are at the turning point of saving this planet (and human life) – or not
• And so much more

While these may seem huge and beyond your ability to control, they may already be starting to hit home for you and people you know. 

You may even have a vague sense that things are very different now, and that we’re not going back to the way things were.

All of these are symptoms of a far more fundamental shift in the way you think, in the way you act.  You may not be totally clear on exactly what’s happening, but you may be one of those who’ve sensed that something has shifted at a very deep level.

What worked in the past won’t work any more

Wherever you look – business, health care systems, education systems – it’s becoming more and more apparent that you just can’t keep going the way we’ve always done things.  If we keep doing things the same old way, in just a few years our health care system will demand 100% of the government budget.  And that’s just one example.

In auto industry, union and management, who have traditionally been at loggerheads, are working together in ways they never would have even thought of doing a few short months ago.  Unions are accepting significant pay cuts that they never would have short months ago.  While some Chrysler workers may still be trying to hold out, GM's workers have given in to the inevitable. 

Back then, the union played their role and management played theirs, and there were clear lines you did not cross.  You had to watch everything you said.

Today, those old ways of behaving, posturing, toeing the party line – there’s no time for that any more.  Things have changed so much that people are left without their ‘crutches’ of their roles and their agendas.  They all know that going back to their habitual ways of dealing with things would spell doom for them all.

It may not be to that extreme in every workplace, but there were always expectations of how you were supposed to act in different situations.  Showing up as your authentic self, ‘with your guard down’ usually wasn’t supported.  You had to hold your cards close to the vest and be ‘professional’.  Information was power, and you didn’t share it unless you got something in return.

That's my 2 cents.  What do you think?