English Hacking

변화, 말이 쉽습니다. 요즘처럼 변화가 절실한 때라고 하더라두요… 말로만 변화를 이룰 수 있다면 누군들 못했겠어요. 변화의 가장 큰 적은 대부분의 경우 자기와 가장 가까운 사람들, 자기의 거의 일부처럼 느껴지는 습관, 환경, 자기와 한 몸처럼 일하는 조직이죠.

Sometimes these changes can be sudden and dramatic, such as Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus (or Bill Gates’ about-face on the Internet). Saul changed his mental model and completely transformed his life, overnight. While this is dramatic, we hear little about how Saul’s family and work associates took the news, but one might imagine that he shocked and alienated quite a few people in the process of changing his life. In this case, the acceptance of the new mental model is so dramatic, like a lightning strike, that the person’s old life crumbles and disappears. This is a break with the old that obviously has a very high cost, and if a modern-day Saul made such a shift without addressing his existing relationships, he might find himself in divorce court, financial ruin and out of work because of unfulfilled obligations of his old life.
Other times, the shift in thinking is fundamental, but does not require quite as dramatic a break with the past. Albert Einstein was walking in Bern, Switzerland, when he suddenly had a shift in his thinking that led to the Special Theory of Relativity. He suddenly understood the problem and its solution. He was so excited that when he met his colleague Besso the next day, Einstein skipped his greetings and immediately announced to his astonished friend that the solution had come to him: time was not absolute, but was instead related to signal velocity. This was a truly revolutionary development and caused massive problems for all the old mental models. [...]
Whatever path we take to implement and embrace a new model in our lives, we almost always have to give something up, and this “something” is usually much more than a way of thinking. (Yoram Wind and Colin Crook, The Power of Impossible Thinking, pp. 145 – 6)

어떤 비용도 없을 거라는 건 환상입니다. 포기해야 하는 것이 무엇인지를 정확하게 안 다음, 포기하는 것과 관련하여 모든 관련된 사람들의 이해를 구하는게 최선이겠죠. 물론, 그렇게 쉽게 되지 않겠지만요. 이 책의 저자가 말하는 충고들을 정리해 봅니다.

• Recognise how expectations of others tie you to a given model
• Understand how the infrastructure ties you to a given model
• Be careful in making irreversible investments in a model
• Start with small changes that affect the perceptions and actions in the broader system
• Do the hard analysis and measurement
• Make the information visible
• Align incentives
• When possible, beat “swords into plowshares” (or at least into better swords)
• Be willing to tear down the walls when necessary
• Build trust

몇 년 전인가, 모사의 테트리스를 꽤나 즐겼었죠. 은근히 중독성이 있거든요. 몇몇 사용자들과 온라인으로 만나면 아는 척도 하고, 챗도 하는 정도로까지 발전했었죠. 그러던 어느날인가, 잘 아는 유저가 제게 한 번 오프라인에서 보지 않겠느냐고 하더군요. 별로 볼 마음은 없었지만, 그래도 계속 챗을 했습니다. 그런데, 벼락같은 이야기를 들었죠…

근데, 어느 초등학교 다녀?

...

그 다음부터 저는 테트리스 안합니다. 변화는 바로 이런거죠. 아래 글에 초등학생이 작문을 해서 올린 것을 보고 문득 떠오른 옛날 생각입니다. 테트리스 안하고 영작하는 초등학생을 보면 좋아해야할지, 어째야할지 잘 모르겠군요.

그냥 그렇다는거죠. 열심히 해서 꿈을 이루시기 바랍니다. 진심입니다.