Tension

First of all, Happy 2009. After taking the last couple weeks "off" from working on this blog, I am really ready to get back into it on a fairly regular basis. I am excited about all that 2009 will have to offer in the midst of the difficulties that we will surely face.

As I have been pondering a new year and the last couple of entries I have starting thinking about vision, shifting the bell curve- and tension. Tension is what creates action. When I originally wrote "playing the bell" back on December 4th, I was really thinking of how a person can drive change withing a community - large or small - but it dawned on me recently that the standard bell curve applies to our PERSONAL actions every bit as much as it applies to a community of people. We have our personal upper and lower ranges of deviant behavior - and by deviant I simply mean that it deviates from our "normal" - and a range of behavior that we consider to be comfortable or normal. We can shift our own normal just like we can shift the normal at a group level.

Both shifts have to do with tension. I don't mean the kind of tension that exists between 2 co-workers that don't really like each other, I am talking about the state that is created when where is ARE is different that where you WANT to be. It is why vision and goals work. You create an internal force that recognizes the difference between the states of being. Having an understanding of where you want to be, and not being there is uncomfortable. It creates a restlessness...a tension. Movement toward the desired outcomes ease that tension, because it narrows the gap.

We don't like tension. We don't like to be uncomfortable. We don't like change. The beauty of the standard curve is that we only have to endure the discomfort for a short time - then the new behaviors become the new normal, and we have to look for the next stretch.

Obviously I still have some more to work on with this, but I'd rather post something rough and keep working on it than wait until its perfected. It is uncomfortable for me to put something not "done" out into the public sphere, but that is precisely why I am doing it.

Playing the Bell

The Bell Curve. We all know it. For many of us, the last time we heard about the bell curve was when we got that "c" on the test and had to explain it to our parents..."well, he graded it on a curve so it wasn't really that bad." But the simple fact is that the curve reigns. The "standard distribution of the population" simply states that most people are in the middle. Its true of IQ, its true of technological savvy, it is true of political leanings. In every case, you have the outliers - those people who make up the small percentage at either end, and then a majority of people in what we call "normal."
Here is the interesting thing about the standard bell curve: You can move it. Seriously. You can shift the entire world of "normal." Malcom Gladwell called it "The Tipping Point." Here is how I see it working, and how it can be influenced.

Basically, any new idea or product - I mean REALLY new idea - starts at the far right side of the curve. In high-tech, they are typically called "early adapters" but they are the innovators. The first ones to pick up an idea and run with it. If you are out on the edges - people look at you a bit differently. They may even call you (god forbid) weird. But here's the thing...if you hang on tight and work to build the base of "believers" in your idea or product, well something happens. Weird becomes less weird. Think back about 10 years ago. Think about how you looked at someone with body art or piercing...pretty out-there wasn't it? Now? Not so much. So what happened? Quite simply, the bell curve moved. The outliers ceased to become outliers. They became the norm - or at least MORE normal. The entire curve shifted toward body art. Now I'm not saying that everyone is running out to get pierced, but the attitude toward the practice has shifted. Even if you don't LIKE it, it isn't deviant (in the good sense of the word) anymore.

So what does that mean for you? Essentially it means that you can change the world. Start small. Build a band of followers (that which Seth Godin calls a Tribe - you really need to read that book) if you can hang on tightly enough and build enough excitement, eventually the entire curve will spring to the right. "Normal" will shift. It takes an idea and the courage to talk about it, but that is where it starts. Toyota shifted the curve with the Prius. Al Gore shifted the curve with "An Inconvenient Truth" Granted they had some horse-power behind them, but it doesn't have to happen that way.

YOU can create a movement. You can make a difference. If it is global climate, clean air, body art, jazz, whatever you are nuts about - it can happen. It DOES happen. Every day.

Believe it. Believe in youself.

What have you got to loose?