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On the day when The Scouts in the UK have announced their exciting new strategy for the next five years, and launched their new brand identity, I have been reflecting on evolution and change versus tradition.

Anybody who knows me will recognise that I am passionate about change. I want to see a better world. I want to see people able to live happier, healthier, more principled and successful lives. Much of my work, whether as a coach / speaker or as a volunteer, has been to bring about purposeful change.

And yet, I also love tradition. I was born into Scouting and enjoy – among many other things – its customs, traditions and heritage. I am also a Freeman of the City of London and as an adult I have joined organisations with a rich and long history, including Freemasonry, a City Livery Company and the College of St George at Windsor Castle – where, each year, I witness the pomp and ceremony at the annual Garter Day. I am also a founder and trustee of a Scouting heritage charity, helping to conserve iconic Scouting artefacts for future generations.

How do I resolve these apparent contradictions? Indeed, is evolution and change incompatible with tradition? Must one always be threatened by the other? Or, can they co-exist?

As a volunteer in both Scouting and Freemasonry I have become involved in the development of these organisations. I have researched their histories and examined how they have evolved. I have found that the way they have evolved and changed over the years has been critical to their survival. Indeed other organisations have died precisely because they did not evolve.

The Founder of Scouting, Robert Baden-Powell, always said that Scouting was a Movement and he warned his Commissioners that if it ever became just an organisation it would die. In my fifty years in membership I have seen many changes in Scouting. Not all of them were comfortable at the time but today Scouting still follows Baden-Powell’s dream and ideals and is now growing faster than it has done at any time since the 1930’s.

Freemasonry might be thought of as a bastion of the establishment, deeply conservative (with a small “c”) and traditional. Yet, it emerged as a key part of the enlightenment, uniquely able to bring together people of different religious and political views based on the shared values of tolerance and respect that united them. Over the course of the last three-hundred years Freemasonry has been through many changes and is going through a new buoyant stage in its evolution as Freemasons, once again, feel comfortable talking about their membership.

In neither case does change mean that the organisations have to sweep away all traditions. Scouting still enjoys the outdoors, camp fires, knot tying and earning badges. Freemasonry still has its ceremonies and pomp, its allegorical dramas and – once again – its public processions. The changes the organisations have introduced do not erode their fundamental principles or values. They refresh the way the organisation connects with its members and potential members, to ensure that it is still relevant and attractive.

In fact, most changes are in the way the organisation themselves work or function, not in things that directly impact the purpose or ethos of the organisations.

During the 40^th anniversary celebrations of the Princes Trust, the Prince of Wales was quoted as saying that, “It would be wrong to continue doing things that were right a few years ago, just because they worked then. The Trust”, he said, “must evolve if it is survive, it must adapt to continue to be attractive and relevant.”

The Royal Family – itself a Victorian development around the Monarchy – is an excellent example of how old institutions can evolve and change to meet the challenges of a changing world. Many of the public events we see today may appear to be ancient. In fact, some have a relatively recent origin, including the annual Garter Day, which was introduced in 1948. Every Coronation Service is an original invention featuring some traditional elements. Those events that do have an ancient origin, such as the annual Lord Mayor’s Show with more than 700 years of history, are regularly refreshed to combine traditional and contemporary elements. Indeed, the City of London’s institutions are outstanding examples of how traditions may continue and reach new audiences if they evolve within a modern framework. And who can deny that the younger generation of the Royal Family are not bringing that oldest and most traditional of institutions, the Monarchy, up to date with their focus on the most vulnerable in our society while they still fulfil their traditional role.

I firmly believe that evolution and change can and must live alongside tradition.

I can visit a Scout Group and see all the traditional activities and priorities taking place alongside modern activities and in contemporary uniforms. I can visit a 300 year old Masonic Lodge and witness traditions that go back to its origins, while references are made to development plans and online payment for meals.

If we lose all traditions we lose not only something of the unique flavour of the institution. We also break the continuous threads that stretch from the founders and predecessors to the present day stewards or guardians, whose responsibility it is to sustain something for future generations.

Charles Darwin developed his theory of natural selection to explain why some groups within populations thrive while others fail. This comes down to small variations between groups being favoured in the struggle for limited resources. Darwin said there is, “One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely: multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.” Perhaps a more familiar quote is by Megginson who said, “It is not the strongest that survive, nor the fittest, but those best suited to their environment and best able to manage change.” And Carl Sagan said, “Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”

So, if we want our companies, organisations and institutions to survive, even thrive, we must allow them to evolve and change, so that they can connect with new markets, members and audiences. But, we must also cherish and preserve our traditions and heritage so that we can appreciate our origins and our historic development and realise that something that is worthy should be passed on better than it was when we found it.

Since injuring my knee in December I have been walking with a stick. This has given me a new insight into how people, and our transport providers in particular, treat the disabled; a word that was applied to me on Friday for the first time.

It has limited some of my more strenuous and demanding activities and affected how I earn my living. Where possible, however, I have tried to carry on as usual. I have travelled by train and tube a good number of times and these last few days I flew to Gibraltar and back.

Most people have treated me with patience and consideration. I have experienced some genuine and unexpected acts of kindness from strangers, although I admit I find it difficult when women stand up and offer me seats. That is my traditional upbringing poking through. Being vulnerable somehow brings out the best in other people but I admit I find it difficult to be on the receiving end.

What it has shown me is how disabled people are treated in public.

First, many of our transport hubs are not designed for those with mobility problems. Distances between transport nodes favour the fast or energetic. Calls for trains and planes only allow time for the fit to get there. By the time they open the gate at St Pancras I can only just get on my train before it pulls out. It was the same travelling to the gate at Manchester Airport.

Then there are the unnecessary sets of stairs. Getting off the plane on my return I had to walk up stairs, down stairs, up stairs and then down stairs before getting to the customs hall.

Use the lift, you might say. I tried that the other day on the tube. First I had to find it. It was out of the way in a dark and grotty area and took an inordinate amount of time to call and then move. It has been the same at the airports. What about ramps? They obviously involve walking further but they also tend to be out of the way, a considerable diversion from the line of travel.

You may be asking, why don’t I ask for assistance. Perhaps because I am independent, a little proud and stubborn, and don’t want to delay my journey more than necessary.

On occasions, however, I have been offered help. At the three airports I have visited in the last few days I have found the staff are very attentive. They have recognised my need and directed me to special fast track “assistance” lanes. I found it funny that one of these involved an extra 200 metres walk than would otherwise have been necessary, simply to put my stick through a scanner.

I had expected that other passengers might resent this favoured status but, on the contrary, some even encouraged me to ask and to accept offers.

Then there is the offer of a wheelchair or buggy. I admit I have not really paid much attention in the past to how these matters operate. I now have a very real perspective.

I have declined a wheelchair on every occasion. Pride again, with a little vanity thrown in. However, I twice accepted the offer of a buggy driven by a member of staff.

On both occasions I regretted it. I only did it the second time to see if the first had been a one-off. It wasn’t.

As soon as you accept the offer of a buggy , or a wheelchair, you become baggage. I, along with others, was left on a buggy for 40 minutes – or would have been if I had stayed. I didn’t know why we were left waiting. We were not told. When I asked I was told the staff had to do paperwork. I got off and walked, very slowly, for a quarter of a mile. When the buggy eventually arrived at the gate the driver parked it, got off – without a word to the passengers – and again left them.

I watched elsewhere as three wheelchair occupants were lined up in close formation against a wall like supermarket trolleys. Their “pushers”, again staff, had been chatting to the occupants while moving but then went off to do something else leaving the poor people unable to move. It reminded me of hospital patients left on beds in corridors, as if they themselves are “goods in” waiting to be processed.

While transport companies clearly put in a lot of effort to support their disabled passengers, my experience suggests that further thought and attention needs to be given to how those with mobility problems are treated.

As soon as you accept a form of disabled transport operated by another person you lose control over your own movement and you cede certain decisions to your helper. That may be inevitable but what is not acceptable to me is how you may also lose the dignity that we all deserve as you are lined up, parked and left.

Surely we can treat people better than this.

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We are some way into the year so it seems strange to talk about those New Year resolutions. But after a hundred days, have you achieved them, are you still working towards them or have you dropped them?

If the first, excellent. Congratulations on your achievement. Please can you share your story in the comment box? Sharing success inspires others.

If the second, well done. Vision, goals and perseverance are necessary to still be working on this and you must have these. You may have “fallen off the wagon” a few times but you have kept going. Onwards and upwards.

If you have dropped them, please consider this.

• It is tough making changes in your habits.
• Your resolution was worthy and motivating in those heady and optimistic hours around New Year. It can be again.
• You will have learned something in your efforts, even if only what tempted you to slide.

So, let me challenge you to have another go. Here are a few tips.

• Reignite your vision of your future success. Polish it, imagine you when you have achieved it and what your life will be like then.
• Review and reset your goals. Perhaps timescales may need adjusting. Perhaps introduce a dose of reality, without losing the aspiration.
• Update your plan. Perhaps the old plan needs to be scrapped and you start again. Maybe it just needs revising. At least apply the lessons learned in the last hundred days.
• Decide how you will change your habits. What are the triggers for the things you do that take you away from your dream? How can you avoid them? What can you put in place to take you nearer, to align your actions to your vision?
• What new disciplines can you adopt to help you? These may be skills, tools or techniques that need learning.

Remember that resolution and that vision are still worth it. Give it another go.

Please look out for my upcoming book, “Introducing the Success Cycle: six steps to achieving your dream”.

In the meantime, please sign up in tonyharvey.online to get my free materials.