If creating the world we want means getting people to change what they currently do, how can we get people to change?

That’s a question we hear a lot when we tell people what we’re doing at Creating the Future. We share that we are building a movement for making visionary community results the norm in social change work, rather than the exception. And the standard response is, “That sounds great. But how will you get people to change their ways?”

Consultants and funders and people involved in capacity building work all seem to live with the same frustrations. How do we get people to change?

Here’s what we’ve found about “getting people to change.”

People will change their habits if they are inspired to change.

People won’t change because you tell them to. They won’t change because it’s best practice or because that’s what other groups are doing. They won’t change if you scare them into doing it (they may DO something differently, but they won’t change how they feel about it, which I can guarantee will rear its head somewhere else, when you least expect it…).

But people will move mountains if they are inspired to do so.

So if we want to change norms, change culture, change habits, the recipe is simple:

1. Meet people where they are, with what they think they need.
2. Open the window just a crack, so they can see what’s possible beyond their comfort zone. Create the environment that inspires them and gives them the confidence to take that small step.
3. And for those early adopters who are absolutely ready to take huge leaps forward, provide the means for them to do so as well.

Think about your mission from the top down and from the bottom up. From the people who can’t wait to make massive changes, and the people who believe they just need a little tweak.

Whether it’s about eating one more helping of vegetables a day or changing food policy; about quitting smoking or banning smoking; about learning 3 new consulting tricks or transforming your practice…

How can you meet people where they are, with compassion and wisdom, and then inspire them to just take that next small step into what is possible?

Last week at Creating the Future, something happened that couldn’t wait till the board’s next meeting. Stuff like this just happens sometimes, at every organization, everywhere.

So we did what boards do when stuff happens. We chatted on the listserv, texted and direct messaged to arrange a conference call, chatted on the phone for a bit until we had a game plan, then followed up with each other via the listserv.

Nothing unusual, right?

Except that 100 years ago, this would have been impossible. The only available approach back then would have been a standing committee, whose job was to convene to deal with these sorts of things as needed.

Yup – the Executive Committee.

In 2011, we have so many ways to connect that people wish they could find a place to hide. And yet the Executive Committee lives on.

Yes, they still deal with issues that arise between meetings. But when so much of that work can be handled by a group-cc’ed email, Executive Committees are now the place where agendas are developed, issues are hashed out prior to the meeting, problems are solved, relationships with the ED are strengthened. These days, Executive Committees tend to be highly engaged places where the good stuff of being a board takes place.

The problem is that that’s the stuff the whole board should be doing – governing, getting excited about issues, planning what to talk about next.  And it is absolutely the stuff for which the board as a whole is accountable, not just several select members.

It is therefore no surprise that there is a highly predictable inverse correlation: the more engaged and energized the Executive Committee, the less engaged and energized is the board as a whole. And it makes perfect sense – the Executive Committee gets to the do the good stuff, and the rest of the board is pretty much expected to rubber stamp whatever the Exec Committee says.

The Stuff Happens Committee
Regardless of all the problems it causes, many boards still insist they need an Executive Committee.

So here’s what I’m thinking. If your board still believes it needs an Executive Committee to “handle stuff,” let’s just rename the committee. Let’s call it the Stuff Happens Committee.

Calling it the Stuff Happens Committee will instantly let folks know its role. “No, it’s not about determining the agenda or hashing out all the issues. It’s just the group that deals with stuff that happens between meetings.”

And to those who say, “Yes, but the Executive Committee is part of our leadership ladder,” let’s use the Stuff Happens Committee to REALLY develop leadership – in everyone. Membership in the Stuff Happens Committee can rotate every six months, ensuring that all board members get to deal with the stuff that happens between meetings.

Getting Real
Once we even jokingly call it the Stuff Happens Committee, we quickly see the real reason boards don’t want to let go of their Executive Committees. It is not a matter of function; it is a matter of image.

Being on the Executive Committee is a reward to those who chose to be leaders. They get their own special meetings – fun meetings, engaged meetings. They get to call themselves by an esteemed name – Executive Committee. (Or as many groups call it, simply “Exec,” as in “The board meets the 3rd Tuesday of every month, and Exec meets the week prior.)

Even when boards realize it is an antiquated construct; even when they understand that having this committee is actually harming the level of engagement and active accountability for the board as a whole – even with all of that, many boards insist that this is a committee they still need.

So let’s make it easier for boards to break free of the chains of self-image and prestige. Let’s make it clear, by calling it what it is, that this is a committee whose time has passed.

And maybe, just maybe, board members will agree to finally put this buggy whip where it belongs – in a museum of days gone by. Because the one place this committee does not belong is in a modern organization, led by a modern board, doing its best to stay energized and focused on making a difference in a its community.

Photo: Courtesy of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Australia – via Wikimedia Commons

Until I am face to face with how awesome it all is. I wrote about that when I visited the Mars lander project, and saw the immensity of what they were accomplishing. It blew me away. It inspired me to push harder and farther. It was, in the literal meaning of the word, awesome.

So this past weekend, I clicked on the link someone shared to the video below – a montage created by NPR about the early exhuberant days of the Space Shuttle.

And I wept.

I wasn’t weeping for the shuttle program or for space exploration. I was weeping to think that we have left behind the age of exploring for the sake of exploring. We have left behind the age of visionary possibility.

And we have entered the age of fixing / curing / ending / preventing as “high aspiration.”

We have entered an age of focusing squarely on our problems. We have convinced ourselves that ending something negative is the same as creating something affirmative. And that prevention is as lofty a goal as creation.

The future does not have to be an extension of the past. We can create the future we want. We do it every single day.

What it takes is aiming higher.

Aiming for the moon and beyond. Aiming at the world we DO want. Aiming beyond what the logic of our past tells us is “reasonable.” Reaching as high as we can, and then reaching higher again.

What it takes is then tethering our plans to that dream

Asking, “What favorable conditions would make that dream simply inevitable?” Asking, “What are all the cause-and-effect variables it will take to create the future we want?” (instead of tethering our plans to today, asking, “How far do we think we can reasonably go?”)

What it takes is aligning our day-to-day actions with our dreams for what is possible, and being that right now.

Instead of wishing others would be more cooperative, being more cooperative ourselves – right here now. Instead of wishing others would be more transparent, being that ourselves – right here now. Walking the talk, right here now.

We have convinced ourselves that creating the future we want is impossible. And we have convinced ourselves that if it is not impossible, then it surely will be hard.

What if it’s not? And what if the only thing standing between us and the world we want is the fact that we think it’s hard – or not possible at all?

Imagine what would have happened if 50 years ago, someone had said, “We’re going to send a man to the moon and back. And we’re going to do that in less than 10 years.”

Oh yeah. We did say that. And it happened.

Photo credit: NASA

The question that arose early in our time together was this: “How can we support each other’s work in as integrated a fashion as possible?”

The wording of the question itself is important. Much of what both our groups are working on is about blurring the lines that divide us all – divide people from each other in survival fears, divide businesses from each other in competitive win/lose fears, divide the community benefit world from the business world from the government world from communities themselves…

Pollyanna Principles #3 notes that “Everyone and everything is interconnected and interdependent, whether we acknowledge that or not.”  As we strive to put all 6 of the Pollyanna Principles into action in everything we do, the wording of the question we colleagues have been asking has even more meaning.

What does integrated, whole, connected support look like among and between individual organizations, people, communities, nations?

As I sat with that question this morning, Peter Block’s book The Answer to How is Yes jumped to mind as I asked this question aloud to the dog:

What if the most affirming, forward-moving answer to “How will we do X?” is, “What would our values look like in action regarding X?”

How can we end poverty? How can we create equitable healthcare in the US? How can our organization collaborate more meaningful with others? How can we balance our organization’s budget with funding cuts again this year?

Could it be that it is that simple – that the path will become clear if we simply ask, “What would our values look like in action regarding poverty, healthcare, collaboration, budget decisions?”

I’m not asking this rhetorically – I would really like to experiment with this, to see what we might all learn together and from each other’s experiments.

So will you give it a try and report back what you find?  If there’s a problem you’ve been wrestling with, will you see what happens if you ask that question?  And then please note in the comments here the results, good or bad.  I promise to do the same.

Photo Info: The Truth Is Closer Than It May Appear (shot by Hildy in Southern Illinois)

]]> http://hildygottlieb.com/2011/05/25/what-will-our-values-look-like-in-action/feed/ 4 http://hildygottlieb.com/2011/05/17/conversations-that-matter/ http://hildygottlieb.com/2011/05/17/conversations-that-matter/#comments Tue, 17 May 2011 23:12:14 +0000 Hildy http://hildygottlieb.com/?p=4582 Several weeks ago, we spent a delightful few days in retreat with some associates. One of the participants had offered his mom’s vacation home for this time away. In offering the house, Joe told us it was tucked into a hillside in California’s Sonoma Valley, that it had plenty of room for all of us, and that it would provide the perfect ambiance for the deep thinking we needed to do together.

Then he shared that there was “just one thing…”

“My cousin attends the Community College nearby, and so he is living at the house as sort of a caretaker. He’s 23 years old and very shy. Friends of mine stayed at the house last month, and for the entire time they were there, Charlie came and went through a side entrance – they never even saw him once.”

Our first night at the house, the magical scents of Dimitri’s cooking greeted Charlie when he got home. We made our introductions, and Dimitri invited him to join us – that there was plenty of food. Counter to our expectations from Joe’s “uber-shy” description, Charlie happily broke bread with us.

Over the next few days, Charlie hung around when he came home from work, joining us for almost every meal including breakfast. He listened to our conversations, chimed in, asked questions. He expanded on those group conversations in more intimate, quiet conversations with his cousin. If asked for words to describe Charlie, the word “shy” would not be anywhere near my top ten.

After several days of amazing discussion and idyllic surroundings – not to mention amazing meals prepared by Chef Dimitri – our retreat time was over, and we all went our separate ways.

A week later, when we caught up via skype for follow-up, Joe shared this story:

“I got an email from Charlie’s mom yesterday. She said she can’t remember when she has seen him this energized and hopeful. She thanked us for involving him in our conversations – she cannot believe the impact those conversations had on him.

Charlie told me he has been so discouraged about the state of the world, that he believed the only solution would be true revolution. After our conversations, though, he shared that he has hope that things can be different, and that we can make that happen.”

I am sharing this story because it is becoming clear that there is an almost desperate need in our world – a need to change the dominant conversation from what is wrong to what is possible. A need to change that conversation from what is considered “practical” to what is both practical and meaningful.

And more than anything, as a pre-requisite to that changed conversation, there is a desperate need to create space for simply having conversation, period.

Which brings me to this month’s edition of Making Change – the 1 year anniversary of the podcast program I host for the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

This anniversary podcast is a bit different from the rest. Instead of one guest, there were 4 of us – Robert Egger (DC Central Kitchen), Kathleen Enright (Grantmakers for Effective Organizations), Margaret Martin (Harmony Project) and myself.

It is also different because the conversation just moves where it wants to go. It touches on some of the most interesting and deeply considered topics. And it points out a glaring disparity:

While some of us may be lucky enough to have these kinds of conversations with friends, virtually none of us have these thoughtful conversations with people who can make things happen – the people who can make a difference. Virtually none of us have these sorts of meaningful conversations with board members and community members and networking group members.

So here’s an assignment that can make an immediate difference for your work.

1) Download this podcast from iTunes - or listen to it streaming online here.
2) And then vow to add a “conversation” item to even just one of your meetings this week.

Whether it is a staff meeting or board meeting or community meeting or networking meeting, add a 10 minute discussion about what is possible for your community (NOT your organization, your community – the reason your org exists).  And make that item the first item on the agenda – not an item for “If we have time…” but Item #1, proclaiming “We will ensure we make time.”

The following are some starter questions. If you think of others, please share them with us!

• How are we defining success for our mission?  What would our community look like if our mission were 100% successful?
• What indicators might we measure, to see if conditions in our community are actually improving?
• What can we accomplish for our community if we work together with our “competition,” that we could not accomplish on our own?

These are the kinds of conversations that made a difference in the life of a 23 year old who had given up. Please let us know what difference they make for the groups you are working with!

Many thanks to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and specifically to the generous and gracious Peter Panapento, for hosting the Making Change podcast this past year. We look forward to a tremendous Year 2, filled with even more exciting conversation!

Photo Info: Group conversation in the Waikato, Hamilton NZ (credit to Dimitri). Sonoma shots c/o me.

“What’s Your Calling?” explores notions of “calling” from both religious and secular perspectives. “What’s Your Calling?” pushes the notion of “calling” to explore all of the stuff that makes us human: our values, our passions, our doubts and hopes. Profiling individuals from diverse backgrounds – “What’s Your Calling?” shares what people have been called to do with their lives and how they hope to change the world.

I confess that I never really entertained the notion that I might have a calling. From the time I left high school, I bounced around – attending seven schools before finally piecing together a degree; working as the legislative aide to a progressive city council member in a growing southwest city; selling and leasing commercial real estate; owning and operating a desert plant nursery; and a lot more this and that. I had no thought to what my life held for me, until…

…until my baby was born.

No, this isn’t going to be a post about the joys of motherhood. It is instead about what I learned from the practice of being a mom.

Here’s what changed when I became Lizzie’s mom: My job became creating the conditions to help my talented girl reach for her own potential.

I used to say that I saw my job not as raising an 8 year old or an 11 year old, but as raising a 35 year old and a 50 year old, because in truth she would only be 8 for a moment, but she would be an adult forever. Not realizing at the time that this was what I was doing, I was, in fact, creating the conditions that would create Lizzie’s future.

Lizzie’s passion is virtually anything related to movies. In 3rd grade, her biography report became her on-screen video debut, talking about the movies of the Marx Brothers. By age 9, she was watching sub-titled foreign films. By middle school, our standing Monday after-school date was an afternoon at the movies – an effort that turned into Lizzie becoming a “youth movie reviewer” for our local paper.

By high school, Lizzie was – no surprise – winning visual arts awards.

So what does Lizzie’s obvious calling have to do with my own? I realize in looking back that my sense of what it meant to be her mom was all about creating the adult she was destined to become – and doing the same for her friends. When she was in preschool, I taught gardening in her class. When she was in grade school, I taught creative writing and Spanish. I aimed my daughter and her classmates at what they had the potential to be.

It was about this time I began helping community benefit organizations identify and reach for their own highest potential – not the potential to build a strong organization, but the higher potential – building strong communities. As it had been with Lizzie, I didn’t see immediate strength as the target, but as one stepping stone towards the long-term goal of building thriving communities.

And that work grew into what is now Creating the Future, a movement to guide social change work to achieve its own highest potential – creating the future we all want for our world.

So what have I learned about having a calling? I’ve learned that for some people, like Lizzie, they know they have a calling from the time they emerge from the womb. For the rest of us, though, it takes a bit more time and experimenting. More than our searching for that calling, it requires that the calling find us – a chance encounter we never expect, becoming a passion we never knew we had.

I’ve learned from my own experience that even when the calling comes knocking, that we don’t see it as “a calling.” We see it as something we are trying, experimenting with, doing because it feels right. We don’t do it as a project with a ton of research and development; instead we just dive in and give it a try.

Starting a program to connect restaurants and food pantries, because we can’t believe how much food is thrown away.

Gathering friends to buy an old movie theater because you love movies and want to try your hand at creating an art cinema theater.

Being a mom.

We think we might be able to do it, so we try it, having no idea what is about to happen to our lives…

The more we do the work, though, the more we find we are no longer trying it – we are doing it. From there, the more that work becomes our everyday, we are no longer doing it – we are being it. It isn’t what we do; it is who we are. It is has become our identity.

And then something almost mystical happens: We find we are no longer content to just do and be that work; we want to help others do and be it. We want to teach it, bring others along, share with them what we have found.

THAT is when we realize that what we have isn’t a job or a career; it is a calling. We are doing the work because we have no choice. We are doing the work because we must. We are doing the work because we feel some force is working through us. We are doing the work because that is what we are in our bones.

And when that happens, look out!!! When it feels like the forces of the universe are aligning at your back to show you the path; when you feel like every part of you is being fulfilled, for the first time in your life; when you are tired of people telling you to take “me” time because every moment you are at “work” it is “me” time; and when your greatest joy is helping others to feel that passion and joy as well – that is when you realize the power of having a calling. And that is when the impact of your work in your community becomes infused with the most potent rocket fuel imaginable.

It’s not about some higher power. It’s not about your own ego. It’s simply about accomplishing the highest potential of the work you are doing, whatever that work may be.

Naming that alignment, claiming it, harnessing its power – that is what catalysts and champions do every day. They see the power of their calling, and they use it to fuel their work.

And what power that is! For those who step into that passion and align their work and their lives around the vision and values that have called them to that passion, the only word for what they can accomplish is “unstoppable.”

Looking back from where I stand now, I see the path I have walked to bring me to my calling. But I am not sure I would have ever used the word “calling” for what we are doing, if not for the pastor of a spiritual group with whom we were working just two years ago. At the end of the workday, the pastor closed with the following words as part of her prayer:

“And thank you, God, for bringing us Hildy and Dimitri, who have a true calling, whether they know it or not.”

There, at that moment, I saw it, named it, embraced the path to which I suddenly realized we had been called. We rejoiced in helping other change-makers find that path. And in the two years since that day, we have worked without a break to help this sector reach its very highest potential, to make visionary community improvement this sector’s norm, rather than the exception.

I do have a calling. I never would have thought it possible, until a little baby girl who grew into an amazing woman showed me my own path of unleashing the potential in the people around me.

And that girl? These days she is living in Hollywood, working on TV and movie crews by day, directing her own short films by night.

Her calling is blossoming into what she has the power and potential to create. And those of us who are following our own callings – creating an amazing future for our world – know exactly how she feels.

I am honored to have been asked to share this post as part of the “What’s Your Calling?” blog tour. You can follow the blog tour on the What’s Your Calling? Facebook Page. Subscribe here for a chance to win prizes that will help you pursue your own calling.

Yes, you. Creating a movement is not beyond your abilities. It is not for someone stronger or more connected. Creating a movement is child’s play!!

Please note that there are two videos in this post. If you are viewing this in an email reader that does not see the video, please click here to view this post online. Enjoy!

Yes, I know, it’s easy to think that’s a choreographed, computer generated crowd. So let’s consider the question more seriously (and you can’t get more serious than a TED talk, even one that’s only 3 minutes long!). What does it take to create a movement?

We see role models like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi as somehow super human – more akin to gods than to the merely mortal humans they were.  Truth is, though, that both men were seen as “lone nuts” for a long time before they were elevated to the “unattainable” regard in which we now hold them.

We may assume we could never live up to the examples of a King or a Gandhi. But each of us has the ability to model the behaviors we want to see in others. Each of us has the power, right now, to be the change we want to see.

If the adage is correct that “we are the ones we have been waiting for,” we can only achieve the potential of those words when we see that potential inside ourselves. And that doesn’t just mean the “lone nuts” like MLK and Gandhi. It means that each of us has that potential.  ”WE are the ones we’ve been waiting for” means YOU!

So what will you do this week to put your highest aspirations into action? What change will you show the world is possible, just by your actions? What movement will you create, one follower at a time?

Have a great Monday, and a great week, all!

Yes, exciting. It’s exciting because a board means this organization is real (not that we don’t already have programs that are extremely real, and all the other stuff that says, “we’re real,” but a board is a big “real” step!).  It’s exciting because we will be surrounding ourselves with brilliant minds, passionate about the work of creating a healthy, vibrant future for our world.

And ok, I admit it is exciting because I am a huge governance geek.

The fact that I love this stuff is no secret. The bazillions of articles and posts I’ve written over the years, the books, the workshops - when I think of boards, their boundless untapped potential gives me goosebumps.  (Yes, I know, it’s a sickness. I’m ok with that…)

So here’s the really fun part – we’ll be using the process outlined in the best-selling Board Recruitment manual at Amazon as the guide for this work.  Yup – mine.

The Process
In our experience, board recruitment often starts with brainstorming a list of names. Sometimes before brainstorming that list, someone whips out a canned “matrix” that says every board should have X number of people from X walks of life (as if every board’s needs were the same, or as if recruiting board members as pro bono help was even a good idea...)

And it is precisely that experience that leads boards to recruit “warm blood and a pulse” or worse – board members that are a bad fit.

The process we are about to undertake will instead consider three critical sets of qualities:

• The Must-Have Qualities: Those qualities we want to be sure every single board member has.
• The “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” Qualities: Those qualities it would be nice if some had, but they don’t all need to have (money, connections, expertise in specific areas of the mission, etc.)
• The “Never in a Million Years” Qualities: Those qualities that, without being explicit about them, we are often willing to overlook as we seek folks in the “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” category. (i.e. “He’s loud-mouthed and has ego issues, but heck – he’s got money…”)

Transparency
Before diving in, it’s probably important to share a bit of background. About a year ago, as we prepared to build this organization, we realized that we have a unique opportunity to be our own demonstration project, modeling what it would look like to transparently engage all our constituents in all our major decisions.  We realized that process alone could be a beacon, a role model, and an invitation to share learning.

What that means is we will be asking for your wisdom, your ideas and your experiences as each major decision arises along this path.  We will document the results of that process to the best of our ability to do so.  And we will see what happens from there!

(To see our first example of transparently engaged decision-making, check out the series of blog posts that led to our name, Creating the Future, up to and including the decision to purchase the domain names!)

Let’s Get Started
As we dive in to build our board, then, we are hoping you will help us brainstorm the qualities that will help this organization move forward. Initially I thought I would ask for one category at a time, but knowing human nature, I knew we would wind up with ideas all over the place – the boon and bane of good brainstorming!

So all I ask is that you tell me which category the qualities you are thinking about fit under.

Must Have: What qualities must every board member have for this creative new venture?

Wouldn’t It Be Nice: What qualities would be nice if some had, but not everyone needs them?

Never Ever Ever: What qualities should we steer clear of, that might tank our ability to reach for this organization’s potential?

Our Thoughts
Because we have been thinking about this, I thought I might get the ball rolling with a few ideas we’ve been playing with.  Please let me know if you don’t think these are valid. None of this is set in stone, it’s all just ideas.

Must Have
• Must “get” the essence of our work and be passionate about its potential.

• Must have time to commit to being a board member (while we don’t know yet how much time that is, this will be a founding board, and we’ll probably chat a lot via listserv in addition to formal board meetings, so…)

• Must have integrity as in “wholeness of being” / must be “wise” and not just smart.

• Must embrace open-source / transparently engaged decision-making

• Must embrace the values noted here

• Must be comfortable with ambiguity, as we are seriously building this plane while we’re flying it.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice
• Connections with people throughout all levels of the sector – academics and researchers, funders and philanthropists, social entrepreneurs and grass roots organizers, and etc.

• While everyone needs to have a comfort level with ambiguity, it would be nice to have some folks who are cautious in their approach to that ambiguity.  On the flip side, it would be nice to have folks who are courageous explorers, who love venturing into the unknown with confidence that things will all work out.  We’ll need some of both.

• Board members from various countries around the world would help ensure the work is infused with cross-cultural sensibilities.

Never in a Million Years
• Folks who are fearful, who are set in their ways, who are focused on why things can’t work vs. how they can.

Ok, that’s my list so far. As I said, a work in progress, so please both add to it and question what is already there.  I can’t wait to see what we come up with – and then start to to find!!!

I am so looking forward to your thoughts!

]]> http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/10/12/recruiting-our-board/feed/ 31 http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/10/10/monday-morning-rock-out-59/ http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/10/10/monday-morning-rock-out-59/#comments Mon, 11 Oct 2010 01:25:55 +0000 Hildy http://hildygottlieb.com/?p=3421 Happy Magical Monday, everyone!

And it is indeed magical. After last week, I cannot help but see magic in everything around me!

Last week, in a small room papered with wisdom and passion, six of us shared our dreams for the future we want to create. We laughed and we cried and we learned. In between, as those who have taken our class know, we ate and ate some more, nourishing our bodies as we nourished our spirits.

One cannot experience our immersion course without realizing in your bones that every one of our dreams for the future of this planet is realistic, practical, doable. As I closed my eyes to sleep this weekend, I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve; the power we have to turn our dreams into reality overtook me at every turn, making me want to dance, to play, to dream…

If you are reading this in an email reader and the video does not appear, click here to see it.

Every one of these classes feels like it is a dream. For five days, we explore what it takes to create an environment where changemakers can reach for their highest potential.

Governance consultants and program evaluators, fundraising consultants and strategists – they transform before their own eyes (and ours), finding gifts that have been there all along, waiting quietly to spring into action to create the world we all want.

We do our best to model the fact that creating visionary community change is practical and doable.

That working from humility – knowing the wisdom is in the room, and learning how to listen for that wisdom – is practical and doable.

That learning to replace judgment with compassion (and learning the extent to which we do, in fact, judge) is practical and doable.

That kindness can rule not only our work, but our lives.

And that if we consultants can learn what it takes to catalyze change, our clients can learn it, and their communities can learn it – the true meaning of all of us modeling the change we want to see.

“My dreams are bursting at the seams,” says the song. Today, still high from a week where we watched “consultants” grow into their role as “visionary changemakers,” my dreams are indeed bursting at the seams.

And everywhere I look, I see ten million fireflies lighting up the world.

Have a great “lit up” Monday and a great week, all!

With love and admiration to Kim, Tesse, Debbie, Kesha and Dimitri.

For a beautiful a capella version of this song, click here.

The “continuum” is a critical component to the work we are doing at Creating the Future. If we are seeking to engage everyone doing social change work in the very highest potential of that work, that requires asking questions such as, “How do we help bring out that potential in board members? In EDs? In consultants? In funders?”

The answer lies, in part, with meeting people where they are, and then extending a hand to encourage and inspire them to reach for the potential they have had all along and simply have not known was there.

Clearly if we are going to meet people where they are, we need to understand where they are (duh!), hence my living inside these continuums (continua?) for the past month. Wherever people are along the path, we want to be able to meet them and extend that hand.

All of which leads me to a question:
What conditions do you think need to be in place for a professional in any area (ED, funder, consultant, university professor…) to seek the next level of their potential?

I’m not talking about seeking a promotion or other external validation. I’m talking about seeking something inside ourselves. Stretching, reaching, transforming. What makes someone want to take first a baby step into a new way of thinking and being? What conditions need to be in place for them to move from “thinking about it” to “trying it” to “deciding to dive in?”

If you have ever made a conscious choice to reach for the next level of what is possible inside yourself – reaching for your own next level of potential – what conditions led to that choice?

For those who have been through our classes, what conditions led first to your wanting to be there, and then to your choosing to do so? Most people who come through our classes are already doing well in their work – what conditions led to your being ok with shaking that up?

And if you have never sought the next level of your own potential (or do not think you have done so), I am curious about that as well.

As I am considering what it takes for someone to buck the trends and reach for what is lying dormant within them, waiting to be born, I would love your thoughts about what conditions need to be in place for someone to be ready to look inside and go for it.

Thanks, one and all!