Organizations, churches, and companies made massive shifts in March due to the Coronavirus.
These massive shifts have caused exhaustion among individuals. Consider the following:
- People used to meeting in person had to adapt to ZOOM.
- People who never used social media platforms had to create accounts or return to using them to get information.
- People who never joined a livestream had to set up their computers or devices to access it.
- People learned how to make videos and podcasts on the fly.
- People had to learn new tools like Slack, Basecamp, Monday, etc.
I keep coming back to this one question – What if we would have embraced these massive shifts earlier?
Early adopter describes a customer or user who embraces a product or service in the first stages of development. In some ways, you have little to lose in becoming an early adopter. You get a head start on a new platform. You can choose to experiment rather than discovering you have to make a massive shift.
Carey Nieuwhof interviewed Bobby Gruenewald in 2018. He shared the story of starting YouVersion, one of the first apps for the iPhone. Being an early adopter or a first mover, he and the team could innovate in ways that others could.
That podcast came out two years ago this month, and how much of that is right for us today?
I think we resist becoming early adopters for many reasons. Why change what already works? Why take the time to invest in something that might not last?
If we’ve learned anything from the past few months, not opening the discussion of early adoption can hinder us in the long run. Instead of staying on the frontlines, we find ourselves playing catch up. We also keep the people we serve from growing and evolving.
Perhaps, less of our conversations should focus on going back to normal, and more of them should lead us to prepare for the massive shifts. Pushing ourselves outside our comfort zones might bring less exhaustion rather than more.
How can you become more of an early adopter today?
Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash