Prof. Wesley Wildman: Thoughts on Innovation from a Change Skeptic
This article was written by Prof. Wesley Wildman for The Presbyterian Outlook, and was originally published on September 15, 2021. The following is an excerpt only; please read the full article here.
Thoughts on Innovation from a Change Skeptic
We like to think what we do matters. Has an impact. Changes lives. But does it?
I confess: I’m a “change skeptic.”
A change skeptic is someone who has trouble believing (often rosy) self-assessments about how our earnest actions lead to real change, to the betterment of lives.
This chronic cognitive condition is typically brought on by witnessing too much overly hopeful thinking about how change supposedly occurs. It is exacerbated by personally participating in supposed processes of radical transformation that turn out to be not so radical, or even transformational.