No cameras please. Remove all cameras.

Last week my wife and I attended a Cirque du Soleil show. The show was wonderful, but the scene at the security checkpoint left something to be desired. As we went through the line to present our tickets and gain admittance, an obligatory staffer yelled out, “No cameras please. Remove all cameras.” Meanwhile, thousands of people like us went through the line texting and playing with their smart phones to pass the time. Every single one of them is a camera. Probably 3/4 of them are also video cameras. Security personnel was oblivious. The scene is the same at almost every performance I go to where they check for cameras.

How could these security companies and their personnel be so naive?

I’d venture to say it is because they focus less on adapting to a changing environment and more on getting a changing environment to adapt to them. The tragedy is that I come across a company a day struggling with the same issue. I ran into one this morning. At a small hardware store, literally six pieces of paper were printed off to process a return. My impression is that every time they get a new computer, system, register or whatever, the first question they ask is how to get it to print the same six pieces of paper they have been printing for thirty years. I’ll avoid going there again simply because of how difficult and time-consuming it is to process a return.

Think about your company for a moment. Are you still running parts of your business like it was 1980? 1990? Ask your customers.

Evaluate whether your old process or procedure makes sense in the current environment, especially with respect to technology. Choose to innovate. Choose to adapt. Do not get caught asking people to remove their cameras while everyone is walking by video taping the irony.