Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change
Beth Comstock with Tahl Raz
Currency (September 2018)

How and why to master the change-maker’s craft because the future is in our imagination

Written with the assistance of Tahl Raz,  Beth Comstock explains that this is “the book I wish I had before starting my journey [in the business world]. I want to use the stories of change that I instigated and led to inspire others to explore and rethink their own path. I want to out flesh and blood on the concepts, advocating for a new way of doing things.  I know how difficult change is. And how necessary. We can’t go on doing things the way we used to — the very ground is shifting under our feet. Change is a messy,collaborative, inspiring, difficult, and ongoing process, like everything meaningful that leads to human progress.”

She cites an especially interesting prediction by Ray Kurzweil that “we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress.” I agree with Comstock that “we are witnessing “the battle for the future of many of our businesses. One of the defining characteristics of our new age of rapid-fire change is that leaders, managers, and employees have to be able to move forward without having all the answers. They have to feel their way in the dark.”

While re-reading Imagine It Forward, I struggled to decide how I want to organize my brief commentary on it, the review you are now reading. Finally, I decided that I would share several of Comstock’s insights (albeit out-of-context) in Sections I-IV to suggest the thrust and flavor of her thinking. As you read each assertion, keep in mind that Comstock suggests HOW TO APPLY IT. Here we go:

o “Change is a messy, collaborative, inspiring, difficult, and ongoing process — like everything meaningful that leads to human progress.”

o “People who effect radical change have to exhibit an uncompromising faith in experimentation, a bias for novelty and action, and a sense that disruption is something you cause, not observe.”

o “Be the outsider inside, translating new ideas for the organization in terms it can understand. Someone who is enough of an insider not to be rejected by the corporation’s natural antibodies.”

o “Discovery is about engaging the world as a classroom, to extract the ideas that will create the future.”

o “Look at what isn’t happening and imagine what could.”

o “To be a change-maker, think mindshare before marketshare.”

o “When you are innovating, tension is the price of admission.”

o “Change is not a single act or initiative. It is an ever-evolving dynamic in which you prod and seed the environment with a range of friction-causing catalysts.”

o “Strategy is a story well told.”

o “Necessity may be the mother of invention, but I’ve found that irritation works pretty well, too.”

Think of Beth Comstock as an evangelist for “courage, creativity, and the power of change.” She is a street-smart visionary, a pragmatic idealist. Her mind reminds me if a Swiss Army knife.  She also has what Hemingway once characterized as a “built-in, shock-proof crap detector.”  She has had more than her share of failures as well as successes and learned a great deal from both, perhaps more from the failures or shall we say “setbacks.” Her various adventures offer invaluable lessons.

Amidst all the ambiguity and uncertainty about the future, I think there is one fact that is as true of individuals as it is of organizations:  Your #1 competitor tomorrow will be who you are, what you do, and how you do it today.