Proposed by the great English naturalist Charles Darwin, “natural selection is the process by which favorable heritable traits become more common in successive generations of a population of organisms that reproduce, and unfavorable heritable traits become less common. Natural selection is the mechanism by which evolution may take place in a population of a specific organism.”
According to natural selection, in nature, it is the organisms that are the strongest, the fittest, the fiercest, the biggest, that tend to survive, as they are more capable of getting their food because of their own characteristics that make them more suitable to keep themselves alive, to feed themselves, to survive and to reproduce. This is true, but only to certain organisms. This doesn’t apply to the key organism of the 21st century: the manager.
The 21st century is so competitive that it is not enough to be the strongest and the fittest. It takes the more prepared, the more capable, the more spiritual, the more positive, the more innovative and creative, the more soft skills, the smarter, the more technologically savvy, the more visionary, the more inspiring, the more dedicated, the more conscientious, the more passionate, to “survive” in today’s world of challenge. All these “21st century survival traits” or characteristics must be gained through training and hard work because “Natural selection does not grant organisms what they ‘need.’”
The following describe the steps of the Natural Selection 2.0 approach to Evolution.
Reproductive Abilities and Environmental Restrictions: Picture this world. Limited resources, where organisms have to fight against each other a deadly and savage battle over water, land and food in other to survive. Now, close your eyes and I’ll repaint the picture for you. There are still limited resources in it and organisms have to fight each other for the same resources. But the key difference is how you fight over them. It’s not about who’s got the strongest teeth or the sharpest claws, it’s about who is the more prepared and the more capable, the ones showing more of the 21st century survival traits the ones who will win over these limited resources.
Struggle for existence and Heritable variations: The 21st century is a world of competition, where if you don’t have your survival traits, you definitely won’t survive. That’s the harsh reality of today’s world. To survive you need resources, but resources are limited, so in order to get your resources you have to fight for them, but, what if you can’t? Of course you can! There’s where variations take place! You have to learn and adapt new skills; train hard in order to get some survival traits! It is really the only way to stay alive in midst of this competitive environment.
Natural Selection and Environmental changes: Here’s where natural selection comes and “selects” the most suitable or better adaptive traits. In our case, nature “selects” the organisms with the survival traits. The rest of the organisms don’t make it to the next step. Be prepared and go to the next step. Don’t fall behind!
Evolution: Survival traits are refined in this step. It’s the ultimate set of skills and competencies that will help today’s managers and individuals survive in the middle of the competitive 21st century. This last step is evolution. Getting to this step means that you are one the few distinguished individuals, the top few who are the most capable, the ones who “evolutes” and will be ready for the next century’s challenges.
An analogy can also be made from the following picture, where the top of the “tree” begins with mutation which creates variation. So there are all these different organisms, managers, individuals in general. Each one of them is different, each one of them has their own personal traits that defines then and differentiates them others. Unfavorable mutations are selected against which means that these individuals are left out, or are knocked out of the way along their path to the next century. On the other hand, favorable mutations are more likely to survive, to get their resources, to feed themselves and to finally reproduce and change the society into a even more competitive one. Where individuals, professionals and managers are continuously improving themselves, adapting to the exponentially increasing competitive society in where all its members, all its organisms try to survive based on their capabilities and skills rather than on mere brute force.
So it’s the competitive market who decides or “selects” who will be the most qualified and prepared to adapt and to stay and who will be left behind in it. It’s each individual’s skill, capabilities, competencies and survival traits what will get you through the new century. It’s not about physical strength and brute force, it’s about the strength in your mind, heart and soul: it is about NATURAL SELECTION 2.0.
by Jimmy Chan
Sources:
http://wiki.cotch.net/upload/thumb/8/86/Mutation_and_selection_diagram.png/322px-Mutation_and_selection_diagram.png
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/misconceps/images/misconceptions_beavers.gif
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/selection/boxes.gif
http://anthro.palomar.edu/evolve/evolve_2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection
No comments:
Post a Comment