I hope it’s not obvious from the way I talk or act—but I grew up as a big NASCAR fan. That’s right, stock car racing. The high banks of Daytona, King Richard, The Great American Race—all threads in the fabric of my youth.  Please humor me and tell me it’s not obvious.

I do come by it honestly, though—my Dad spent his youth hanging around the local race tracks of Long Island as a driver/mechanic (one small offshoot of NASCAR’s roots extends from the Carolinas all the way up to suburban New York City…you don’t need to be a Southerner to be a redneck.)

This genetic anomaly may be somewhat embarrassing to admit to, but it does have at least some value, since there are lessons from NASCAR racing that have great applicability for us in corporate comms.

Lesson number one:  Never admit to being a NASCAR fan. (oops…too late)

But a more important lesson is the one they teach to rookie drivers about how to avoid The Big One. That’s the name given to the kind of catastrophic chain reaction wrecks that occur about every other time they race at the superspeedways like Daytona and Talledega.

SITUATION: You’re driving down the straightaway of a 2-and-a-half-mile track going 200 miles an hour, and you see a wreck developing a couple hundred yards ahead of you. What are you supposed to do?

Smacking on the brakes isn’t gonna save you—you’re going way too fast for that. And there’s no way to tell which direction the careening cars will go next.  Some wrecks push up the banking toward the outside wall.  Some collect down low toward the infield.  They’re all different. You’ve got about one second to determine whether you will narrowly avoid certain doom, or, become yet another victim of The Big One.  Soooooooo again, what are you supposed to do?

Here’s what:  Aim for the center of the wreck.

You heard me.  Point the nose of your car right squarely at the exact place the wreck is happening right now.  DO it.

The idea is that by the time YOU get to where the wreck is now…while there’s no telling exactly where the skidding cars will be by then…chances are they WON’T be where they are right now.

If you have to bet…bet on change.

That’s pretty good advice for us  communicators. Since last year, we at CEC have been talking to Comms teams around the world about leveraging the art and science of communications to help your company develop a culture that thrives during times of change.  To create a workforce that is fast, and flexible, and adaptable to change. Based on everything we’ve been seeing in the global economy, this is the single biggest “X factor” that will determine which companies will succeed in the decade of the 20-teens.

QUESTION: How would you rate your company, your employees, and your culture at “eating up change”? How does the communications environment at your company help your people become faster, more flexible, and more adaptable?

If you’re not currently on the pathway to becoming great at change—or worse yet, if you’re counting on “the dust finally settling” and hoping the next few years will be a time of stability—it’s time to grab hold of the wheel and jerk it hard in the direction of constant change.

If you don’t, you might very well find yourselves caught up in the next “big one.”

CEC’s work on “Mobilizing the Workforce” is all about how Comms can help build a culture of “speed, flexibility and adaptability to change.”  If you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely check it out.