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There is a splendid law in the Universe - there is only one thing permanent and constant. No, we are not talking about Einstein, his theory of relativity or the speed of light. The only constant we know is called ‘change.’ Change is the only thing that would happen and that implies nothing is permanent whether we wish or not. In this short write up we examine a few practical situations.  

First, when Covid-19 stuck, it stunned us with the speed it spread and when it stopped spreading it stunned us again with the number of deaths running into millions. It all seemed like a nightmare we passed but there are some people who are still suffering from a version called long Covid. In the days that followed after Covid-19, several companies jumped into research and manufacturing, trying to bring a vaccine quickly to everyone.  Naysayers said a typical vaccine can take years to become a reality whereas innovators jumped at the chance to use MRNA to create a vaccine in record time. Suddenly the outlook of people, the time needed to create a new vaccine, the number of people who took the vaccine, found it useful and survived  and the numbers of naysayers all have changed.  The inevitable happened faster than we imagined. Those did not like the change fell behind and those invited the changed moved forward. But in either case, change was inevitable, and it happened. It continues to happen every day. Some changes are slow, some come fast, and some may take years and decades, but we know the law will always prevail  – change is inevitable.  

If we consider businesses and their projects, we see as businesses progress branches are broken, divisions are reorganized, companies are sold or merged (K-Mart, Sears etc.), and new ones are formed. A few decades ago, if we asked anyone in business about ‘corporate planning,’ they would not have known what it meant but now corporate planning is a large department in most businesses, looking ahead into next 10 -15 years.  This is the step we learn in project management – continuous monitoring and improvement.  With new innovations come new developments and technologies and these innovations force their way into our lives. The modern smart cell phone is the best example. Once upon a time, telephone literally, was used just for that – to make a voice call to someone. But with changes that came to these devices, all one needs in life is a smart phone in hand. Whether it can be used for positive effects or negative effects is up to the user. From “what can it do to me,” the smart phone has developed into “why it cannot do that to me.” That’s the power of change. 

As project management professionals what can we do about the inevitable? First, invite the change because if we resist, change will happen anyway, and it will engulf or brush aside the naysayers. Second, convince your staff and be convinced yourself that change will positively impact you and  your business. Importantly how we adapt to that change will dictate how we can positively use that change. Third, respect the change that happens and move forward with it. Fourth, retrain your staff as change happens and own the success that comes with the change.  Fifth, we reinforce our beliefs with the new change. And there is final thing that we can do as well – pride yourself and stand with your team proudly for implementing the change and adapting to it in a positive way but do sincerely shun the ego as it hurts everyone involved. 

Is that all? With every change we keep changing and become chameleons of a different color with every innovation? Is this just a rat race to run ahead of everyone and bring the new change as quickly as possible and claim that we are the first to welcome that so and so change in so and so technology?   To answer this, let us see what President Jimmy Carter said in an interview when he was alive.  After he left the White House, he was involved with several volunteer organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and in constructing toilets where sanitation was bad or non-existent for poor people. He also won a noble prize for his efforts.  Usually, most US presidents and top-level political figures and businessmen have their strong footing in their career and continue those lines. But president Carter’s career took off, after he left the White House.   He quoted what his childhood teacher taught him about how to invite the change and adapt. His sentence is the answer to our question – Change is evitable, and we must adjust to the changing times with our unchanging principles.  

Isn’t it a wonderful? That quote of President Jimmy Carter, should be the personal high bar we should set (and continue to keep it high) for ourselves as project managers dealing with the inevitable. When adapting to a change, to quote President Carter again, “God has wisely designed our human bodies, so we can never pat ourselves or kick ourselves.” There is really no need to pat or kick ourselves, when adapting to the inevitable. We can easily adapt to a change as a spontaneous and natural process. 

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About the Author 
R. Sarma Danturthi has a doctoral degree in engineering from the University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA and has taught graduate-level courses in engineering and computer science. He has been working in the IT field for over 20 years. His experience includes design, coding, leading project teams, and successful project management. He regularly contributes to the PMI Knowledge Shelf, has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals, and has written two books (70 tips and tricks for mastering CISSP by Apress 2021 and Application and database security, by Pearson 2024), book chapters on software interfaces, modeling, and simulation. His interests include cloud computing, intelligent interfaces, mobile application development, and process studies of project organizing among others. He can be contacted at [email protected].