I know. You’re tired of talk about the New Year, resolutions, changing your life, diet, physique, relationships, etc.
I’m definitely not trying to cut into Oprah or Dr. Phil but …
I do want to talk to you about what CHANGE means to me … and how that might have the greatest IMPACT on you, your team or your organization.
“EVERY organization is PERFECTLY DESIGNED to get the RESULTS they are getting.”
I know you’ve seen this Tim Kight epiphany before. It’s one of the best ways to think about DIFFERENT RESULTS means DIFFERENT DESIGN (CHANGE).
As every parent or grandparent knows, the only person who really, really likes ‘CHANGE’ is a wet baby.
Here are three quotes to help you begin the PROCESS.
- 1. “BE the CHANGE you want to see in the world.” – Gandhi
- Gandhi’s eponymous quote is on everything from T-shirts to coffee mugs to bumper stickers.
- CHANGE is up to us.
- Some people can actively CHANGE ‘THE’ WORLD. All of us can CHANGE ‘OUR’ WORLD (our impact, our income, our health, our relationships, our lives).
- 2. “Social Entrepreneurs CHANGE the PERFORMANCE CAPACITY of SOCIETY.” – Peter Drucker
- Mr. Drucker was THE management guru and acknowledged thought leader in the field of leadership and organizational development.
- Here’s a perfect example of his clear and challenging thinking. Don’t just ‘CHANGE’ something, CHANGE something BIG!!! (e.g. “The PERFORMANCE CAPACITY of SOCIETY!!!”)
- 3. “Stop BEGGING for change. Start begging for CHANGE.” – Robert Egger
- Bob Egger’s wonderful book title and even more wonderful content provides a catchy, pithy way to talk about radical transformation, creative destruction and Quantum Leap innovation.
Adapt or Die. Change or Die. Change to Live.
As we begin the year 2014 (which, regardless of the Chinese, I am calling THE YEAR OF THE EAGLE … and ALL ABOUT VISION … FOCUS … SOAR), I am encouraging our team and your team to think about what it actually means to CHANGE … FOR IMPACT.
Here are 6 stories on CHANGE … and a small action/activity to help turn your SACRED COWS into HAMBURGER!
- GREAT BARRIER REEF
- Have you ever visited the Great Barrier Reef in Australia?
- On the inner (leeward) side of the reef, there are NO waves, NO turbulence, NO ‘CHANGE’ … and NO LIFE!
- All of the colorful fish, the beautiful coral and the amazing plants are on the ocean (windward) side of the reef… where they are hammered every day with crashing waves, intense turbulence and ‘CHANGE.’
- “IL SOLE NO MUOVE”
- Forty years before Copernicus revolutionized the world view, Leonardo da Vinci said, “THE SUN DOES NOT MOVE.” Both these dudes were born on a flat, unmoving planet in the center of the universe, around which the ‘SUN CIRCLED’.
- A century after their deaths, that same planet was a rotating sphere orbiting around the sun somewhere in a universe too vast to even have a center! The church tried to suppress this as heresy. The best ‘THINKERS’ of the times thought this concept absurd.
- The planet/solar system did not ‘CHANGE’ but, the paradigm for understanding it had been turned inside out.
- BABIES BORN IN CHAOS
- Steven Pressfield (currently my favorite author) states that the creative act is primitive.
- “Babies are born in blood and chaos; stars and gravity come into being amid the release of massive primordial cataclysms.
- The hospital room may be spotless and sterile, but the birth itself will always take place amid CHAOS, PAIN and BLOOD.”
- ITALY & SWITZERLAND
- In the 15th Century, Italy was immersed in chaos, war, bloodshed, terror… and ‘CHANGE.’
- It produced da Vinci, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi… and the RENAISSANCE.
- Around the same time, SWITZERLAND experienced hundreds of years of peace, consistency, sustainability and no, none, nada, nil ‘CHANGE.’
- It produced the CUCKOO CLOCK.
- MONKEY NUTS and BERRIES
- My good friend, Jim Mahoney (Battelle for Kids), tells this wonderful story:
- It’s pretty easy to catch monkeys in the jungle. You just carve out the inside of a coconut with a small hole in the top, fill the coconut with NUTS and BERRIES, and attach the coconut to a stake or a tree.
- The monkey comes along, sticks its hand inside the coconut, and grabs a handful of nuts and berries. The monkey will be there when you get back. Guaranteed.WHY? Because it will NOT let go of the NUTS and BERRIES … and can’t get it’s FIST out of the coconut.
- SACRED COWS
- Here’s My Own Short Final Story On Change:
- I won a trip around the world (long story, long trip). While visiting India, I actually saw those famous ‘sacred cows,’ and learned that once they got too old or useless, they were shipped across a neighboring border and turned into HAMBURGER!
ALERT:
Tomorrow we will release the Artist’s Proof of a new Guidebook, CHANGE (THE) RULES. Watch for it!
