Right now, South Australia is buzzing. People have converged from everywhere to watch a complete round of AFL games in Adelaide and regional areas. Gather round, they say. Come together. Connection matters (thank you for the invitation, Belle Baker, pictured).
But “gather round” isn’t just a sporting call. It’s the opening line from Bob Dylan’s prophetic 1964 anthem, The Times They Are A-Changin’. A song that captured the seismic cultural shifts of its era with a warning that sounds like a strategic briefing for today’s business landscape.
Dylan’s lyrics pulse with a fundamental truth that resonates even more powerfully now: Change isn’t just coming—it’s here, and it’s moving at a velocity that demands our full attention. When he sang about waters rising and the need to start swimming or sink like a stone, he could have been writing a manifesto for modern business survival.
The Velocity of Change
Times are changing at a pace that would make a quantum physicist dizzy.
AI isn’t just knocking at the door—it’s already rearranging the furniture of entire industries. One unpredictable global leader setting tariffs can send economic tremors through markets faster than you can refresh your LinkedIn feed. The complexity compounds. The uncertainty intensifies.
And at some point, this relentless momentum leads to pure, unadulterated overwhelm.
Sink or Swim: The Brutal Choice
The haunting truth? You might sink like a stone if you don’t listen and change.
This isn’t melodrama. This is a strategic imperative.
Finding Calm in the Storm
When change crashes over you like a king-sized rogue wave, your nervous system goes into full-blown fight-or-flight mode. Rational thinking vanishes. Strategy becomes a distant memory.
This is where most business owners make their fatal mistake. They either freeze or flail, mistaking motion for meaningful action.
Enter Jefferson Fisher’s most profound insight in The Next Conversation — a breathing technique that’s less about zen-like tranquility and more about tactical nervous system reset.
Fisher understands something crucial: Your body doesn’t distinguish between a market disruption and a physical threat. The same physiological responses that once kept our ancestors alive in the savannah now hijack our decision-making when AI threatens to rewrite entire industry playbooks.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and need something to break the circuit of anxiety or fatigue, try this breathing exercise. I’ve had to use it a few times this week.
Here’s how it works (repeat four times):
- Inhale deeply, filling your lungs, take about 2 seconds
- Hold for a split second but don’t breathe out yet
- Take a sharp second breath, jolting your system into heightened awareness
- Exhale slowly, taking 4 seconds through partly closed lips
The magic isn’t in the technique. It’s in reclaiming control when everything feels uncontrollable.
The Premiership of Adaptation
Given that it is Gather Round, we might finish with some inspiration from the footy.
Picture a footy coach who’s lost their edge (I will not name names). The plays that once electrified the crowd now fall flat. The team’s performance becomes a slow-motion train wreck—predictable, painful, inevitable.
But here’s a crucial insight: Transformation doesn’t always require wholesale changes or new players.
Just last weekend, David Olney and I facilitated a strategic planning session that proved something remarkable. Without replacing a single team member, we uncovered a wellspring of inspirational thinking. The magic wasn’t in bringing in new talent, but in creating a space for fresh perspective.
Sometimes, the most profound change is a shift in mindset.
Are there systems or people in your business stuck in a bygone era? The real question isn’t about wholesale replacement, but about creating an environment of humble curiosity. Can you approach your current challenges with the same hunger for innovation that once drove your initial success?
Are we adapting or just existing? Do our current approaches solve today’s challenges, or are we fighting yesterday’s battles? What sacred cows are we protecting that should have been sent to the abattoir years ago?
The moment a leader becomes more committed to defending past approaches than exploring new possibilities is the moment decline becomes inevitable.
Your market doesn’t care about your historical highlight reel. It only cares about your next move.
The Invitation
Are you ready to step up again into your captaincy role, afresh, despite the blowing winds and crashing waves all around you?
Take that breath. Feel the pause. And then? Start swimming.
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
And you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’