Music has been important to me as long as I can remember. As a kid, I used to have a big stack of 45s (that’s a small vinyl record with one song on the front side and one on the back just in case you can’t remember) of my favorite songs. I would buy vinyl albums when I could afford it and play them on a record player in my room.

Right about the time I got my driver’s license, I discovered 8-Track tapes. I could pop one in on my small stereo and also in the tape deck in my 1967 Ford Pickup truck. Shortly before I left for boot camp in 1983, I purchased a 1982 Mercury Cougar with a cassette deck. I traded in all of my 8-Tracks for cassettes. Soon I discovered that if I bought a boom box with dual cassette players, I could make mix tapes with my favorite songs.

Then came CDs. I began purchasing all of my favorite albums on CD knowing that these would never get twisted or warped like my cassettes did. Even though I still used cassettes in my Walkman when working out or going out for a run, the CD was my prime way of enjoying music.

Then, in 2003 I discovered digital music. I bought a small MP3 player and would listen to my music electronically while commuting on the Metro to my last job I had before starting my business. That cheap MP3 player was replaced by the iPod. Now I had nearly 3,000 songs on a device the size of a pack of cigarettes. iPods got smaller and soon I could have music with me wherever I went. The iTunes catalog was massive and I could get my favorite songs for just $1.29.

Soon I noticed my kids ditching iTunes for this thing called Spotify. It came to my attention first as the Verizon data plans were exhausted two weeks into the billing cycle. I asked the kids why they chose to rent their music rather than own it. They said it was way better. I couldn’t imagine anything better than iTunes.

I’ve officially been a Spotify Premium customer for one month. It’s the best thing ever created for music! Playlists that can be created and collaborated on and nearly every song ever played available for download. I even broke down and bought some Bluetooth headphones so I could use my phone to play music at the gym.

It’s been a very long (and expensive) journey.

Each of my music transitions followed this same pattern:

Dismissal – Curiosity – Guarded Interest – Interest – Guarded Enthusiasm – Radical Embracement.

In my experience I’ve seen individuals and organizations follow that same pattern. Some consultants call this Change Management but since I think buzzwords are lame, maybe just think about this as the process people follow when they are confronted by something new.

In my case, my musical interests are satisfied by something so radically different than a stack of scratched 45s that I would not have been able to conceive it back in 1975. As a kid I might have embraced it but I’m sure if I were an adult back then I would not have even budged from my comfortable thinking.

Our challenge today is that conventional thinking and processes are safe and make sense. We’ve adjusted, adapted, and accepted enough for one day. Something new is not needed or welcomed.

As we enter a new year, maybe it’s time to stop thinking conventionally and start processing in leap-frogged increments. Not what is, but what will be. Not one step ahead, but five. I think about this while watching Shark Tank (and commenting under my breath like most people “now why didn’t I think of that?”)

Music is so much better now on Spotify. Will I be willing to ditch my Spotify for the next big trend?

Will you be able to ditch your conventional processes and thoughts for the next big development?

Let’s make this year the one where we actually do!