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There Is No New Normal

Guest post by: Mark Sanborn

Article Overview: A friend sent me a description of a speech entitled, “The New Normal.” I’d seen that phrase before. Heck, I’ve used the phrase before. However, although we want to believe there actually is an identifiable normal, there is no new normal. No matter what happens, though agility and speed are tools for dealing with a lack of normalcy.

There Is No New Normal

Communicators are always looking for clever ways to explain things. In the age of hyperbole, straightforward explanations are rarely enough. To get noticed, ideas need to be clever and catchy.

I know this because communicating in spoken and written word is what I do for a living.

A friend recently sent me a description of a speech entitled, “The New Normal.” I’d seen that phrase before. Heck, I’ve used the phrase before.

My friend thought this title (and he didn’t know the presenter or content of the presentation) would be of great interest to leaders. I agree: we’d all like someone to explain what normal means these days. We want to believe there actually is an identifiable normal.

The problem is that there is no new normal. Normal means standard, regular, or usual. I believe that business–and culture in general–is changing so quickly that we don’t reach a period of stasis that becomes regular or usual in the typical sense of the words. (And leaders grapple with the fact that their organizations do reach stasis and that prevents them from adapting to change.)

Some years ago David Reynolds wrote a book with a title that has always stuck in my mind. It is catchy, but I believe it more accurately explains business and life than “the new normal.” His book was “Playing Ball on Running Water.” This captures the incessant change we face each day. Of course Heraclitus said something similar much earlier when he told us nobody can step in the same river twice.

If I really wanted to torture words, I’d saw abnormal is the new normal. It is a nonsensical, yet I bet you understand what I mean.

This hope that we can identify normal is a subset of magic bullet thinking, the belief that something (or someone) can provide the ultimate answer, cure or solution. Life is much more complex and, in the end, success requires doing the necessary work. There is no magic bullet nor is there a normal that a leader or anyone else can wrap his or her arms around. And, as I write about in "Up, Down, or Sideways," there are things that we can and should do that will benefit us regardless of what does happen.

If you’re like me, you don’t really like uncertainty. I’d like to know what is going to happen and what to do about it. I’ve made peace with the need to experiment, track results and use agility to adjust or abandon my approach as need. Agility and speed, as I’ve written before, are tools for dealing with a lack of normalcy.

“The New Normal” is appealing, but in my experience, it is a myth. On a few rare days there might be a “new temporarily normal,” but on most days I have to accept that I’m playing ball, doing business and living my life on running water.

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Article Tags: business, change, playing ball on running water, the new normal, uncertainty
Referred by: http://www.PrimeauProductions.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin's Case Study #7 - How do you promote your new book? - Hi Kevin, Normal conversion rate is 2% for me. High conversion rate can be 5-6% or more probably. But if you use Google Adwords techniques properly and have the good sales letter, then it can be 25-30% or more. It depends on books too. If it is exciting and shocking book with great sales letter then it will determine the rate of conversion, too. Orxan
Re: Kevin's Case Study #7 - How do you promote your new book? - [quote="orxan":kako3o5q]Hi Kevin, Normal conversion rate is 2% for me. High conversion rate can be 5-6% or more probably. But if you use Google Adwords techniques properly and have the good sales letter, then it can be 25-30% or more. It depends on books too. If it is exciting and shocking book with great sales letter then it will determine the rate of conversion, too. Orxan[/quote:kako3o5q] Hi Orxan, What are some Google AdWords techniques you can share with us that generate 25-30% conversion rates? Thanks


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