Technology Leadership Redshift

Time for a physics flash back. Who remembers what "redshift" is? Hint: it has something to do with speed and light. Remember? Yeah, me neither. Wikipedia to the rescue!

If a source of the light is moving away from an observer, then redshift (z > 0) occurs

and as that observer approaches the speed of light the observer experiences what's called Time Dilation. Time appears to be moving faster for the observer than it is for others around that observer, relative to that observer.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshift

From my experience, as the observer, the same thing has, is and will continue to happen in the technology fields. My interest is specifically in how it occurs using technology for interpersonal and business communication.

I hear people say that we are moving into another "more controlled" dot com boom. The truth of the matter is we are just constantly experiencing technology redshift. All the time, in almost all technology related fields. It's when we forget that time is constant and redshift is only a relative observation that things begin to come unraveled.

As we become involved on the edge of new technologies sometimes it appears we are moving faster than everyone else. Adopting things sooner... being innovative. Sometimes we are, sometimes we are not. I use that manifestation of the redshift phenomenon to check and re-check myself and my company to be confident we are positioned correctly. When things loose their redshift I need to re-evaluate. I've found one thing to be true, if I am not experiencing redshift then it's a guaranteed that we are not innovating. Also, by the same context, if things ever begin to appear to have a blueshift I need to re-evaluate and re-engineer immediately.

I love change so living with redshift is very comfortable to me and I can recognize it well. It's not for the faint of heart, but it keeps me on my toes!