Frames of Reference and the Zanclean Flood

Around 5 million years ago, the Straight of Gibraltar broke open, reconnecting the dried-out Mediterranean with the Atlantic ocean.

The resulting flood of the dry mediterranean basin with water from the Atlantic was a cataclysmic event that took at least a decade to complete.

For humans, this is a pretty long time. Yet, in geological terms, the flooding was instantaneous.

Organisations (especially big ones) operate on different scales, too.

There's the day-to-day working, and the more abstract top level working. The former is picking up all the small signals, the latter has serious threshold filters in place. The former is often belittled as being "tactical" and "operational", while the latter is praised as "strategic" and "forward looking".

The difference between these two levels of operation is that people on the day-to-day level see many cataclysmic changes coming from a long way out. While for top level managers, many events appear to be instantaneous.

Human scale vs. geological scale.

Depending on which scale you are operating on, change is gradual and perceivable, or it is spontaneous and surprising.

Things like mass resignations, erosion of morale or the intensification of cynicism. Things breaking violently. Ability to innovate dropping to zero.

If you're down at the ground level, you notice many small changes that signal the big change. The little cracks in the surface. The rivulets that were not there before. The rumble in the distance.

The further away you are from ground-level, the higher your threshold filters are set. You're not dealing with rivulets and cracks. The flood is chipping away at your walls, but you're not noticing it, because it does so gradually.

And once the change is big enough to pass your filters, it has already happened.