There’s an idea in philosophy that one already is the sort of person one aspires to be. This realisation, that one can simply decide to change, can occur in a moment.

Counter-positioned against this simple idea is a gargantuan array of self-improvement frameworks, behaviour modification approaches, conspicuously consumable goods and services nominally designed for these ends, and black books of hacks used to manipulate perception and action. And don’t forget the bewildering field of people and orgs pushing any and all of the above with varying efficacy.

This means that an individual changing to a considerable degree isn’t really that special. Live even just a little and such meaningful change is inevitable. But what about a pack, a team, a group, an organisation, a culture? Can a complete and effective re-orientation take place in a single moment across collectives? A whole bunch of overlapping industries and cabals would reply with a horrified, “No.” They’re wrong.

Consider the generic form. An event happens. The low-n-order effects of that event impact a group to a great degree. The extent of the impact is great enough that the group must respond near-instantly with a major change or adaptation of behaviour. They do, meeting the event and the surrounding environment with admirable aplomb.

The event does three things for the group. It makes the need for change common knowledge, so no one person has to guess whether the others are on board. It makes the change legitimate, so adaptation reads as competence rather than betrayal of what came before. And it makes the old state irretrievable, so there’s no rut left to relapse into.

What the event doesn’t do is make any material change to the matter of a group. The group has roughly the same capacity (latent and realised) as before; it is merely that sufficient stimuli emerged and catalysed a strong response. Unconsciously, the group decided, in the span of a moment, to change.

Counter to common knowledge, a collective can move fast. Terrifyingly fast, sometimes. It’s just that doing so requires 1) common knowledge of 2) a legitimate response to deal with 3) a forced entry into a new world state. Reality will supply that to everyone eventually but it’s sensible to be proactive and provide it on purpose. And if you can’t bring such a thing to the collective? Take the collective to the thing itself.