The Depth of the Habit

There's a lot to be said in praise of constancy and consistency. We applaud those who are steadfast in their beliefs, even if we sometimes have doubts about those beliefs. You have to admire those who try even when they fail. Might I suggest we are so blinded and distracted by the admiration of the effort that we lose sight of what became of the outcome.

Connecticut thinks of itself as "The Land of Steady Habits" (having been raised in an East Coast state not too distant from here, I assure you none of us called any of you 'steady' but that's a discussion for perhaps another time) and takes a great deal of pride in the title. But maybe doing things the way we always have is getting in the way of getting things done.

One of the biggest impacts to Who We Are now in the Age of Applied Technology is how well and how rapidly we, as individuals, families, neighborhoods or urban centers (society in general) respond to altered circumstances and considitions. In much the manner that the advent of the telephone altered person to person communication, the convergence of computers, social media and technology have, again, caused us to reinvent ourselves.

The more successfully we respond and react, the higher the rate at which we succeed. As faxes overwhelmed teletyped messages and, in turn, were ovetaken by email which has yielded to text messaging, the agility with which we adapt and adopt new tools to accomplish our tasks and then expand both the scale and scope of those tasks, could be the key to renewal in New England in general and in Connecticut in particular. 

He who hesitates is lunch and he who lags, loses. An innovation only remains an innovation until times change then, if it doesn't, it becomes an historic artifact. If you don't think so, ask the people who ran Eastman Kodak how it feels to have gone from cutting edge to history's dustbin as Kodak's bankruptcy winds down.

It's great to treasure our past and never lose sight of where we came from but not if it keeps us from clearly seeing and traveling to where we need to go next. Because we are comfortable with traditional manufacturing and retailing doens't mean other forms of it, combined with new approaches to previous successes cannot play a significant role in this regions's continuing rebirth.

We have private sector employers heavily dependent on their workforces' intellectual ingenuity to maintain worldwide market share. We have celebrated resorts striving to stay at least fifteen minutes ahead of their time and their competition. We have world-class secondary and post-secondary educational facilities preparing students today for tomorrow and all of these entities and enterprises are always on the prowl for fresh talent and new blood.

We are seeing a growing number of visionaries and futurists who always ask "what if?" questions when looking at industry, education, business and government and the role each plays in our lives. Because we always have doesn' mean we always shall, or should. Sometimes the only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth of the habit.
-bill kenny