The next time you hear someone warn ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, perk your ears and pay attention because dire straights may soon follow. The rate of change is increasing and what’s working today will be broken tomorrow because someone else will be doing it better, faster, cheaper, and with less effort. As the title of this blog declares “Continual Improvement”, this is the mindset necessary to compete, and frankly survive, in all areas of life today. (I was going to mention rapid globalization and technological advancement, but the double cliche was more than I could stomach.) Here are some examples:

• Don’t see any issues with your smooth flowing work process? Wake up! One of your competitors is or soon will be using the same process with 1-2 tweaks to increase productivity two fold.
• Think you know everything there is about programming language X? There’s 10,000 people connected to the Internet working to develop faster than you with an 8086 and for the same cost as an 8086.
• Does the significant other seem quietly content with the weekly routine going on X years? Wait too long to throw some spice in the mix, and breakup city will be in your future moving plans.

The point is just thinking something isn’t broke means it probably is. These complacency thoughts should be the trigger in the mind that jolts us out of our slumber and starts probing for better ways.