In a recent article with colleagues, we explain how different industries can have very dissimilar velocity regimes (patterns of rates and directions of change). The four velocity regimes we propose – simple, divergent, integrated and conflicted – each has an industry dynamic that ranges from basic and homogenous to complex and diverse. So, while we know it is important for companies and individuals to keep pace with the rate of change, the notion of velocity regimes highlights that this can be more complex than simply being fast or slow. More often companies will be required to focus on, and to synchronize and coordinate activities to fit with multiple rates and directions of changes. In our paper, we then go on to explain that for certain velocity regimes managers and teams should have “temporal orientations” suited to tracking, making-sense of, and responding to the pattern of change in their industry.
