Did you say different?

So here I am, writing my first blog entry one day after attending the Forrester Executive Leadership Forum in Orlando. It was a great conference and I must admit I was a little surprised. Surprised in not only that I actually enjoyed my sidetrip to Disney to purchase a duck (Daisy for those interested in the details...for my daughter ofcourse!) but the entire conference had alot of relevance to what I think about on a daily basis in my role as the Chief Evangelist for Cfactor (http://www.cfactor.net/). First off, the entire theme of the conference dealt with what they called the "chaos" of all of these new buzzwords and technologies hitting the CIOs doorstep - Cloud Computing, SaaS, Corporate Social Networking, Twitter, Google Pictures and "IM is the killer app", MINT, Wasabi, etc etc etc...an explosion of products, applications, companies, ideas - all being made available to anyone that can access and use a web browser. As the head of any technology department would say, "where do I start?"..."whatever happened to a project plan?"..."You can't just use that...what if ..." 1 million different reasons to fail...My my my....the times have certainly changed when only the technology folks inside of organizations were "in the know" based on the latest training they took from HP, IBM, Oracle or god forbid Digital Equipment Corporation. Ok, so now I am dating myself....yes I was around back in the late 80s and early 90s and yes I did witness the first web page being accessed via a Netscape browser wayyyyy back in 1995. Things have certainly changed, but, you didn't need me to say that...we all know of the changes that have occured or perhaps you are one of these Gen "Y"ers that are confused with the emphasis we are all putting on how "things have changed"...Well, I think what has changed is actually nothing! Nothing is really different. What we are witnessing right now is what has been happening since day 1! Whats Day 1? Its whenever this planet celebrated its first day. What I am talking about folks is "evolution". Evolution has been around forever. Its nothing new. All of these new buzzwords and ways of communicating, entertaining and living are a natural progression of who we are. We will always want to learn more and do more with less and do things faster and better and easier...its what has taken us from the days of "Look! its fire and its hot" to "Can I have a vente, double chocolate chip frappacino, bold, with room for cream". We shouldnt be so amazed and confused and need to go to a conference for three days to "learn how to embrace the chaos"...we have been living in chaos all of our lives. Everything always changes and will continue to change. The Earth never stops spinning on its axis nor circling the sun. Days turn into nights and nights turn into days. There are sunny days and there are cloudy days. Months are hot and others are cold. People go to school, work, talk to each other, watch television, read the papers, access the internet (post 1995 ofcourse!) and each of these interactions are opportunities to learn something new. This knowledge that we as humans gain has enabled us to invent new ways of living. Our younger generations are always the catalysts. They come into our world with a fresh perspective. They see their predecessors living in some sort of precarious way and then invent a new way that makes it funner, easier, faster, better...you name it...its positive and different. Ah....but thats where the problems start...did I say "different"? Yes! With difference, comes learning. With learning comes work. With work comes commitment! But we are all so busy already...well folks, I dont want to spoil the party, but you have to keep learning. You need to plan accordingly and plan to leave some room aside to learn something new everyday...without evolution we have something called stagnation...and that is definitely, positively, without question....not good.