You Can't Be Serious - Status Quo in Social Media and Life - The Dodo Bird is Calling

You Can’t Be Serious - Status Quo in Social Media and Life - The Dodo Bird is Calling!

Let’s face it; saying that things should or could remain status quo is like burying your head in the sand and hoping that when you come out, things are exactly like you left them.  So, why exactly do people think this?

Over the last few days alone I have heard status quo mentioned in terms of a community and the call for it not to change.  I have heard it referenced in terms of social media ‘still’ being a fad – talk about having your head in the sand!  Just today Gini Dietrich spoke of status quo in her great post Seven Metrics PR Should Track to Gain Respect.  Gini being Gini though, knows that status quo is not the answer.

Folks, status quo is just not possible.  Think about it this way.  Say you decide that you are going to continue to do things the way you always have.  You say, if isn’t broken, why fix it?  Good philosophy many would say.  Perhaps at one time that were true, but let’s look at a good examples of status quo:

Dalhousie, New Brunswick, is a beautiful little town in Eastern Canada.  It was a mill town.  It was a wealthy little town.  You noticed I say, “was”.  As times changed, industry standards changed, the mill and its processes more or less stayed the same.  On top of that, there was no aggressive action to bring more industry or new industry to the town.  A once thriving town is now but a shadow of itself.  The mill was torn down earlier this year, as so many other buildings have been.  Where the mill once stood is now a vast expanse of emptiness.  This was my hometown, so seeing it disappear goes way deeper than words can express. 

Image compliments of kidzworld.com

There are of course theories that prove that organizations (also organisms) can only go on “as is” for a certain period of time before needing to change or innovate to survive.  The S-curve, which has been discussed by many great minds, discusses just this and if you are into some interesting theoretical discussions, do click on the hyperlink. 

My point though is that we can’t just stick our heads in the sand.  If we do, the world still goes on around us and change occurs with or without us.  So, to avoid going the way of the dodo bird, we need to continually change and innovate.

So, the question now is:  do you agree or disagree?  Can you promote status quo and survive?