"Small changes can lead to big impacts"

The ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, once said about change, "If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."  I like that a lot.  I've written a number of posts in the past on the concept of change.  Change is hard.  Change is constant.  No one likes change.  In reality, though, if you really think about it, change is not all that hard. 

I recently finished a really good book called "Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Leading a Better Life"  by former Navy SEAL and Rhodes scholar, Eric Greitens, who is now the governor of the state of Missouri.  The book is actually a series of letters that Greitens wrote to a former fellow Navy SEAL named Zach Walker (a pseudo-name) who was experiencing difficulties adjusting to life outside of the military.  One of the analogies that Greitens uses in the book is a story from one of the courses that they had to take during "Land Navigation" training.  "Land navigation" provides basic and advanced instruction in how to use a compass, a map, and terrain recognition to be able to know where you are, where you are going, and how best to get there.  Greitens told his friend, Zach, that if you take a compass bearing and travel in one direction a certain distance, you will end up in a specific point.  Change the compass bearing by just one degree (remember that there are 360 degrees on a compass dial) and you end up some place completely different.  In other words, if you don't like where you are heading, you will end up in a completely different place by making just a very small change in your direction.  Just one degree makes a huge difference! 

It's a nice analogy.  Small, even seemingly trivial changes, can lead to big impacts.  Do you believe me?  Well, there is actually a tragic story that proves my point (sort of).  Back in the late 1970's, there was a regularly scheduled sightseeing trip run by the airline, Air New Zealand that would leave Auckland, New Zealand in the morning and fly over the continent of Antarctica before heading back to New Zealand.  On November 28, 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901 took off from Auckland on the fourteenth sightseeing flight over Antarctica.  Unbeknownst to the flight crew, someone (it may actually have been one of the pilots) had made a course correction in the flight computer that resulted in a two degree change in course in the flight plan.  The two degree course change would place the flight 28 miles east of where they thought they would end - instead of passing over McMurdo Sound, the DC-10 flew directly into the side of Mount Erebus, a 12,500 ft volcano on Ross Island, killing everyone on board (237 passengers and 20 crew members).  A seemingly small error of 2 degrees resulted in a 28 mile course correction, leading to the death of 257 individuals. 

The lesson here - it doesn't take much of a change in the direction you are heading to make a significant change in where you end up going.  As Eric Greitens told his friend, Zach Walker, if you want to change, start by making a small, seemingly trivial change in your approach.  It's really good advice when you think of it.  Small changes can lead to big impacts.