Competence is the enemy of change

Years before we had ‘Good is the enemy of great,’ we had Seth Godin in Fast Company:

Competent people resist change. Why? Because change threatens to make them less competent. And competent people like being competent. That's who they are, and sometimes that's all they've got. No wonder they're not in a hurry to rock the boat. . . . In the face of change, the competent are helpless.

It doesn't take a lot of time to change … to reinvent … or to redesign. No, it doesn't take time; it takes will. The will to change. The will to take a risk. The will to become incompetent – at least for a while.

See also my implementation dip post from last year.