Go Beyond the Status Quo
- By: Louis Alfieri
The status quo is an illusion
In an interview last year, Jeremy Geffen, the executive and artistic director of Cal Performances at the University of California said something that resonated with me:
“I feel like the status quo is an illusion, It’s something we invent in hindsight, rather than an actual expression of the moment.”
I agree wholeheartedly with Geffen. Moreover, I’d add is that the status quo is an illusion many of us are invested in pursuing and maintaining. In fact, there’s a psychological term to describe the tendency: status quo bias. The desire for stability can lead us to push back against the forces of change to our own detriment. A business may try to replicate yesterday’s successes–only to discover the world has inevitably moved on.
Think Like an Entrepreneur
When I urge clients and colleagues to challenge the status quo, I’m really asking them to open up to the changing state of the moment. I’m asking them to adopt a more entrepreneurial mindset.
I wrote recently for Blooploop about the need for more entrepreneurial thinking in the experiential entertainment space. To be clear, you don’t need to be starting a new business to benefit from the entrepreneurial approach to work. An entrepreneur is someone who sees themselves as a force of positive change. Within the global dynamic of constant change, an entrepreneur is someone who leans into the future in search of what’s possible.
Tune into the state of Change
Ultimately, many of the qualities we think of as “entrepreneurial” will become essential skills for doing any kind of business. Letting go of the status quo is really about tuning into the state of change. Once you do, you can start to see where you and your organization fit into the flow.
