Everything needs to get better. Everything.

After nearly two decades of presenting synopses of business books, and books on social justice including books on poverty, education, and homelessness, I’m ready to state the obvious:

Everything needs to get better – and, it can get better
Everything needs to be done in a better way – and, it can be done in a better way
Everything need to be improved – and, it can be improved

And, by the way, in many arenas, the old ways may not be around much longer. Even new ways are in constant threat of the newer ways and then the newest newer ways.

I thought of this as I read the list of Emmy winners. Long gone are the ways that dominated for decades; no Hill Street Blues or All in the Family or The West Wing, with more episodes “season-long” weekly broadcasts on a “major” over-the airwaves network. HBO, Amazon, Netflix – watched on televisions and also small screen SmartPhones – are now in the mix, and becoming ever-more dominant.

What we did yesterday, what worked yesterday, is under constant revision/rejection.

I just presented a synopsis of Housing First, about an utterly new concept and approach toward ending homelessness. Here’s a line from the book:

How often in the vast landscape of health and human services does a small programmatic innovation become the leading approach in less than 20 years, making waves in a multibillion-dollar service sector?

In other words, the paradigm shifted, and like all true paradigm shifts, it was sudden, all-at-once, unexpected, and ultimately undeniable (although, there are plenty of advocates for and practitioners of the old ways that are in denial).

But, here’s the obvious challenge for all of us – what are we now doing, and how are we doing it, that is about to undergo change.

Because, things will change. Yes, they will! If you haven’t learned that by now, you are truly behind the times!