Growing Up

What do you want to do when you grow up?  It's a question that's been rolling around in your head for decades, right?  It's also one you ask you kids.  I jokingly respond that if I make it to 50 without growing up I won't have to.  You could interpret that to mean "I'm pretty comfortable doing what I'm doing and don't see a need to make big changes," but that would be a lie as I wouldn't bother with school.  What that statement really means to me is that the state of "having grown up" is a terminal state (or as we learned this week in one of my classes, a capturing state in a Markov model).

The question also applies to organizations, like HL7 International, or IHE USA.  And again, the idea that "grown up" is a done thing applies even less to organizations that it does to people.  Growing up is a process of change.  Organizations need to be constantly changing to meet the needs of their environment.

And people will either resist or promote change.  It's not comfortable, but the alternative is even worse.

Remember this, when an organism (person or organization) stops changing, it isn't because they've reached perfection, but rather, because they have died.