Survival of the fittest

It is still a common misconception that the phrase “Survival of the Fittest” means that the strongest will win.

That is not what that phrase means, nor what it was intended to mean.

What it really means is that those who ‘fit in’ best will be the ones to survive.

It’s not about strength – it’s about flexibility.  The ability to adapt.

Environments change all the time and those who adjust in order to fit into them are the ones who survive.

The other week, I was watching the film ‘Hidden Figures’.  It’s about the true geniuses behind the American Space programme – coloured women who actually cracked the complex calculations required to get their rockets into space.  Really good film, well worth watching.

One bit that really resonated (Warning: Spoiler Alert)

There is a scene where the head of this department that was running all these calculations is walking through NASA and sees this big machine being installed in a large room.  The letters IBM are all over it.

This is one of the first major commercial computers and, learning that it can do in 5 minutes what her entire department can do in a week, she knows that she and her team are on the way out.

Does she panic?  Does she get angry?  Does she blame NASA, IBM, the system?

Actually, yes, a bit.  But then she gets into action.

She adapts.

She researches the computer, gets a book on FORTRAN and trains herself and her team to become computer programmers.  Making themselves indispensable and saving all their jobs.

This just a real life example of how to be faced with a major threat and find a way round it.

If your normal services and solutions are no longer applicable or effective, what can you do differently to make sure that you still provide support and value to your clients?

What can your clients do differently to adjust to the changes that are going on?

The world is not going to change just because we complain about it.  However, we can make our way in the world if we adjust to meet it.

It’s not the environment, it’s how you adapt that counts.

Andrew Miller – AVN PGE