The Change Department

Steve Jobs never thought phones and music would work on the same platform. Jobs hated dropped calls and simply wanted to make the iPhone the best phone possible.

“We want to reinvent the phone,” Jobs said in 2007. “What’s the killer app? The killer app is making calls. It’s amazing how hard it is to make calls on most phones.”

Jobs was also not comfortable allowing his smartphone to have the capacity to play music because he thought it would eliminate his baby, the iPod, which changed how we all listened to music.

While Jobs focused on eliminating dropped calls, making the iPhone super slick, his team at Apple worked on integrating the phone with music. When the technology team introduced a smartphone to play music, they found it was difficult to get Jobs to change his mind. He was resistant to the change because he never visualized the phone doing anything more than making calls.

We all see Jobs as an innovator, a pragmatist who loved to change his mind. In reality, Jobs was no different than most of us, fighting off change when he had a pre-determined vision in his head. The difference between Jobs and us, though, is that he allowed people to enter his world and encouraged free thinking. He wanted people to think outside the box and push the envelope toward something better.

Most companies have a human resource department, a research department, a technology department, a risk-management group; yet, they don’t have a “Change Department.” They don’t have a team of high-level thinkers who are willing to look for ways to change course and seek better solutions, while not being afraid to voice their opinions. We could use a “Change Department” in our personal lives, someone we can rely on to help us understand the other side, force us not to resist the inevitable, prod us to think differently.

Trying to build consensus — attempting to get everyone on the same page — is a great organizational concept on paper, but it often leads to people who only go along because they don’t want to rock the boat. Consensus building will leave a layer of quiet doubt, stifle honesty and create water cooler conversations. When you have a “Change Department” working alongside everyone, those who don’t want to rock the boat eventually start rocking.

If Jobs could not see everything that lay ahead, neither can we. But if he could have his mind changed, so can we.