You 'should' read this
Published: Fri, 10/02/15
Henry Ford thought that ordinary people should have access to personal motorised transport. We take this idea pretty much for granted. However, Ford did not have an easy start in developing his motor business. He failed and went bankrupt more than once before he created the Ford Motor Company which has been manufacturing vehicles for over 100 years now. Some helpful person suggested that Ford ask his potential customers what they wanted in the way of personal transport. In reply Ford is supposed to have said that there was no point in asking an ordinary person what they wanted since they would just say that they wanted a faster horse.
Ford was of course an innovator. The problem with innovation is that people are being asked to engage with a new idea, to go somewhere that they have never been before. I know people who go to Druid camp year on year on their own while their spouse stays at home and enjoys having the house to themselves. One half of the couple enjoys a few days camping and engaging with interesting communal activities. The other half just wants to stay in familiar surroundings. Not everyone, in fact relatively few people, are actually ready to try something different and expand their comfort zone.
There are a couple of relatively little known principles which explain why. One is the 80/20 principle which shows that around 80% of any result actually comes from around 20% of possible input. This means that the vast majority of innovative ideas and activities are going to be initially taken up and developed by a very small proportion of the overall population. Even a knowledge and understanding of the 80/20 principle seems to be concentrated in a very small proportion of the overall population (if you have just been introduced to the concept through reading this then congratulations, you are part of a privileged minority even if you don’t fully realise it yet.)
The 80/20 principle is easy to prove statistically. Slightly less easy to prove, yet commonly observed, is the 100 monkeys theory. This concept was noticed by anthropologists studying a colony of monkeys living on an island off Japan. The monkeys were given bags of potatoes to eat. Apparently the potatoes still had earth on them. One monkey immediately started washing her food before eating it. Her offspring copied this practice, other neighbouring monkeys gradually caught on too and then suddenly, all the monkeys on the island started doing the same thing. This was even though most of the monkeys could not have witnessed the practice first hand. So although there may be almost complete ignorance or even resistance to an idea for quite a long time there will eventually come a point when the idea is accepted as just the way things are. Malcom Gladwell called this the ‘Tipping Point’ in his popular book.
We sometimes want things to change and we feel frustrated at the lack of understanding, let alone response that we receive. However, the only thing to do is be the change, rather than try and make the change (I believe Ghandi said something similar.)
The vast majority of people will not consciously think about changing or developing in any way. The majority just accept the world as it is unless they find themselves seriously inconvenienced or made uncomfortable in some way. 80/20 principle suggests that most of the conscious thinking done in this world is the work of a very small proportion of the population. If you have read this far you may well be one of those few.
For some reason I have found myself as a Stav teacher. At the point I met Ivar it just seemed to make sense as something that I needed to do and that I should share what I learned with others. I have had plenty of frustrations over the years at the seeming slow progress. However, as I showed yesterday, there is no point in creating extra stress on top of life’s necessary struggles. I am teaching 4 classes a week now and regular seminars. There are times to celebrate where one is rather than be angry because you do now think you are where you ‘should’ be. ‘Should’ is another word we need to be very careful how we use. I could say that you should come to my seminar tomorrow morning. Better just to say, you are welcome to come to my seminar tomorrow http://www.somersetstav.co.uk/sd.html (or Salisbury on the 14th of November if that works better for you http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/train.html)
regards
Graham