Michael Simmons is an author who has done extensive research on the topic of accelerated change in the workplace. He studied the work of 10 different authors who had written on this issue of the acceleration of digital capitalism and the acceleration of time. Simmons spent over 100 hours reading these top 10 books and articles and provided a summary of all of them in his own article.

I recently talked all about that article on Leading the Factory Forward. Here are some of the ideas and conclusions Simmons came to after his research: 

The Red Queen Effect

The Red Queen Effect is the idea that, even though we have more time than ever before, we have more things to do to fill that time. We are in a never-ending race with our competitors. Whenever they start to do more, we start running faster to keep up with them. Even when technology improves and allows us to do things more quickly, it also fuels the competition, keeping us on the never-ending treadmill.

The 10-Year Rule

This comes from Michael Simmon’s article. He says that we’re doubling the paradigm shift rate every 10 years. This means that the changes we say in 2020 will only take 6 months to change once we reach 2030. In 2040, we’ll see that amount of change happen in only 3 months.

How to Prepare for All The Changes and Paradigm Shifts to Come:

• Be ready to adapt new mindsets, especially around technology and what kind of work people will find valuable

• Have a general awareness of how you’ll provide value moving forward

• Learn and relearn: you may need to forget some things you’ve learned in college or during your early work experience and learn new things to adopt a new paradigm

• Learn to make choices: be conscious about what you’re willing to allow into your life and what you will provide our actions on