Jim Carroll, author of What I Learned from Frogs in Texas, gave an entertaining and informative keynote at the Tenrox User Conference last week. One of the biggest take-aways was: be ready for change–more of it and at a faster pace than we can yet imagine.

Jim talked about how young people don’t only bring about rapid change, but since they have grown up in a world where change is a given, change is simply part of their lives. Whatever the next wave of change is going to be, they won’t just be early adopters–they will be rapid adapters, and they will adapt without even giving it much thought.

His title to the foreword of the book Rise of the Project Workforce, "Don’t mess with my powder, dude," refers to a snowboarder’s response to a job offer. What many of us would call a "regular job" just gets in the way of what is really important to young people’s lives. In fact, over half of people under 25 consider self-employment to be more secure than full-time employment.

We are already seeing what this new attitude is doing to the project workforce. First of all, it is making it more possible–there is a new batch of project workers for whom the "Hollywood Model" will fit like a glove. Second of all, it will force those of us ahead of this curve in experience, but behind in and adaptability (i.e., older) to take a hard look at the "innovation killers" we habitually put into place that could slow down the process of teams becoming more agile, flexible, and less constrained to the home office.