Chief Change Officer
#170 Colin Savage: Change Junkie on a Global Tour—Swapping Comfort for Chaos – Part One
Mon, 10 Feb 2025
Part One. Change isn’t just a phase for Colin Savage—it’s his entire identity. In this three-part series, we explore how he went from chasing change to mastering it. With experience spanning seven countries, seven secondments, and projects in over 70 nations, Colin knows what it takes to adapt, reinvent, and thrive. In this episode, Colin challenges the idea of lifelong learning (spoiler: he thinks it’s outdated) and makes the case for skill stacking instead. And before we wrap, we’ll dive into AI, human intelligence, and why everyone needs a personal AI strategy. Get ready—this episode moves fast, just like Colin’s career! Key Highlights of Our Interview: Chasing Novelty vs. Finding Purpose “It’s easy to leap into new opportunities just because they look exciting. But what’s the endgame? Without a deeper reason or plan, chasing novelty can leave you with unfinished experiences and a string of ‘almost-there’ moments. Purpose turns adventures into meaningful chapters.” Addicted to Change: Thrill or Trap? “Addiction to novelty isn’t inherently bad—it pushes boundaries and opens up opportunities. But unbridled chasing without reflection or completion risks shallow experiences. The key? Balancing the thrill of change with the discipline to extract value from every leap.” Change as a Tool, Not a Fix “Change for the sake of novelty often leads to dissatisfaction. Instead, approach change as a tool for growth, not a quick fix. Thoughtfully evaluate your motives, assess your readiness, and embrace change as a means to align with your purpose—not as an escape from discomfort.” Japan: A Surprising Example of Measured Change “Even in traditionally conservative cultures, like Japan’s life insurance industry, meaningful change can thrive. Success here came not from disruption but from careful planning, patience, and conversations that built consensus. Change, when handled thoughtfully, can flourish even in the most traditional environments.” _________________________ Connect with us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Colin Savage --Chief Change Officer-- Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself. Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs, Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts. 6 Million+ All-Time Downloads. Reaching 80+ Countries Daily. Global Top 3% Podcast. Top 10 US Business. Top 1 US Careers. >>>100,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today.<<< --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is Colin Savage and what is his journey in change management?
This is a three-part series with Colin Selvidge. In part one, the first episode, we'll dive into Colin's fascinating journey as a self-proclaimed change addict turned change guru. Colin's career spans continents, cultures, and industries, seven countries lived in, seven more secunded to, and projects in over 70 nations.
From organizational transformation to personal reinvention, he has mastered the art of embracing change and applying those lessons to life. In this conversation, Colin unpacks his unique perspective on change. How throwing himself into the unknown led to unparalleled growth and insight.
From leaving Canada with nothing but a suitcase and ambition, to navigating industries from telecommunications to financial services, Colin shares how the constant evolution around him became his greatest teacher. In the next episodes, we'll explore the learning required for transformation, why Colin believes lifelong learning is outdated and skills decking is the future.
And finally, in part three, we'll tackle AI, human intelligence, and why every one of us needs a personal AI strategy. Buckle up. This one is a ride. Colin, finally, I got you to my show. Welcome to Chief Change Officer. Good morning to you.
Thank you so much for having me, Vince, and good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everyone.
Colin is from Canada, the Big North, a very cold place. I used to live in Toronto myself. Colin is in another province, or in America, we call it a state. So Colin, let's start with your story. Who are you, what you're doing now, but also what did you do in the past? Your past, your journey, and your history.
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Chapter 2: How did Colin Savage become a change addict?
Fantastic. Thank you, Vince. Happy to. So I'm Colin, as you introduced, Colin Davidge. I am hailing today from the Queen City, which was Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. And so I was born and raised here. I lived here until I was probably just out of the university. And then I left and lived overseas for 20 years. That really isn't that uncommon.
During the early 90s in Saskatchewan, a lot of people looked for opportunities elsewhere. And even if I look at sort of my high school graduating class drawings, 60, 70% of them stayed in their city and went to our local university. Another chunk maybe went to a university nearby or a neighboring province. And a very small bit even left and moved elsewhere in Canada, like she mentioned, Ontario.
But very few people went further than that. I finished university armed with a great liberal arts degree and a degree in English literature, which obviously at the time when everybody was banging down my door to give me a job. But I needed to go, I needed to go somewhere else. So I left with that degree and with some other experience and decided to test Asia.
Chapter 3: What lessons did Colin Savage learn from his global experiences?
There's a long story and it's all through my LinkedIn profile. People can read it, but I managed to, over the 20 years, build up what I call 7-7-70. So I lived in seven countries. I was seconded to seven others, and I worked in Project 70 Nations around the world. put it up and make it simple for others to follow. There's three threads that go through my background.
One of them was academics and education. I was heavily involved in my own academic. I studied for three master's degrees in various areas. I worked as a lecturer in universities and countries across Southeast Asia and Japan where I spent almost nine years. Then there was
It's more of a business thread, which involved business development, marketing, market research in a number of industries, which all, looking back, link a little bit to each other, but at times we're all so different. Particularly because they also not include just all over the private sector, but also working with government and governments across different countries they lived in.
And then finally, the other thread would probably be something where I would think, and it's more aligned with this podcast almost directly, is strategy and change. While I'm working in industries or moving from one to the other, I noticed that things were evolving.
An example would be, I spent time leading a team of analysts out of London in the UK that focused on telecommunications across the team. So I had a team of 40 people. They were all dedicated and focused on individual countries or market. And they were all coming back to me with similar, but also at times very different analysis of how those markets were changing.
Data was becoming part of what you could put on your mobile phone, or you could start searching the internet. And this led me into financial services where, while I was with quite a traditional Japanese major licensure, there was FinTech visible. And FinTech led to things like RegTech, where we're doing regulation.
Through all of these different evolutions and changes, there were little things that led me from one to the other. But also, I'm really honest to say that a little bit of looking in the rear view of the mirror and seeing it afterwards. At the time, it was just a lot of change. And I know today, Vince, we're going to talk about something that I mentioned in Change Addict to Change Guru.
I really was a change addict in a sense. When I left Canada in 1994... I just threw caution to the wind and went. Picked Thailand. I packed a suitcase. I went there. I had no, I knew nothing about the language, culture, the working environment or anything. I not only changed the city I lived in, but the country, the culture, the language, the industry and everything at once.
And that really put me on the path. I could do it repeatedly until before I moved back to Canada, I joked to myself that, look, if I change everything at one and I'm addicted to doing that, the only thing I can do next is maybe move to the moon. There's no more I can add into the mix to make it harder on myself.
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Chapter 4: What does it mean to be a change addict versus a change guru?
So I think full circle, all of the different industries and markets and cultures and countries, roles and people that I've dealt with, you can put a lot of energy into promoting it and encouraging it, but to a point before it gets a little bit dangerous. So hopefully that's a good interview, Vince. If you've got any other questions for me on that, I'd be happy to delve into it.
I could take up for a whole hour on myself if you want.
In your self-introduction, Two words caught my attention. Change addict and change guru. How do you define these two terms?
Regina is a lovely city. And like I said, I grew up here and I grew up at a time when it was pretty traditional. Most of us looked the same. There wasn't a whole lot of ways to escape it, the right word to use. And so there wasn't a lot of novelty, at least from my perspective.
If you wanted to, you could, you grew up here, you went to university, you got a degree in administration, and we're a government town, so you go work for the government, you find your partner, start a family, and so on. So, the path was pretty much laid out. And that really wasn't me.
And at the time I didn't know, I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but I knew that wasn't the path that I wanted to take. And so the only thing I could do is basically have my radar on high alert for anything that sort of caught my interest. And that's where I get to the change addict. It's a lot about novelty. Oh, wouldn't it be neat if I moved to Kenya and I worked for a bank?
Or wouldn't it be cool if I went to China and I studied? And when I hear people say that, I'm always encouraging them to consider it. But the question afterwards is what thing, for what purpose? If you go and you could study where you live now because of all the opportunities we have and online and the virtual world has made it easy. For example, us today, you're in Hong Kong and I'm in Redona.
We're very easily, we can do whatever we want. Well, why do you need, why do you need to go there and do that? And if the answer that comes back to a lot of, I don't know, I saw a movie and China looks really neat or, oh, I saw that one person on social media that they do this and they're being super successful. So why wouldn't that be me? And I don't think that's a bad answer.
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Chapter 5: How can you balance novelty with purposeful change?
But the reality is that you gotta have a little bit more planning behind it. I, and I lived the, the attic lifestyle. Like I said, I, I moved, picked up and moved to Thailand. And then one day in Thailand, without really teaching English to adults and at the university, I wanna go somewhere where there's no Burger King, there's no 7-Eleven, there's no this, there's no that.
And I basically walked into a travel, where can I go? But I forward and she said, go to Myanmar. So I did, I went to Myanmar and did nothing about it, took a suitcase. And then I lived there for a year and a half learning my way. I was there, but looking back, that was just novel. Oh, it's foreign. It's new. It's different. It's unknown. I'll like leap into it and don't do it.
And a single person now, anyone can do that, but it didn't really have a purpose in mind. And the thing is novelty is great, but novelty wears off. You're there for a year and a half, and then you wake up one morning and it happens again. Oh, I'm bored now. I've done this. I've learned these things that are really cool and interesting.
And okay, let's go move here or let's go try this or let's do whatever. The other thing that I might add is that change addict, like whenever you're shit with some kind of adversity, it takes as much, if not more time. focus to get through to the end. The lucky thing for me was, well, I've started this degree, I gotta finish it.
Or I started in this job, I gotta be here at least this amount of time. Or I've started learning this language, I gotta focus at least enough so I can do some kind of benchmark. And it's a lot, it's a lot harder when you have to do that, when it is just chasing novelty. So I think, yeah, like the change addict part, there's a lot of people that will do that.
And actually, I'm a little bit different. If you start something and it's not for you, you should really just chuck it in and go find the thing that you want. There's opportunity cost, as we all know, right? But if you don't wrap things up or if you don't complete them to a certain extent, later on, I don't really know how you could pull out the value.
And as we get into other topics, like maybe you can apply it teamwork, but if you haven't finished it, you're never going to get there. So the way that I came about the concept of change addict and addict is the harsh word, but you really can be to change and to novel.
So being a change addict, ideally, would you say you're one of those who puts in a good amount of calculation behind each change? Or is it more like, oh, it's just that feeling? What type are you? Have you ever thought about that?
No, that's a great question, Vince. And I think, again, I thought it would be in hindsight, which is lovely to have. But I think at the time it was, like I mentioned adversity, but, and I also mentioned boredom. For me, like when I didn't have responsibility, right? It's just me. I'm the one that's responsible for myself. I got to feed, clothe, house me.
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