There are two ways to create change on a new team or in a community or a relationship:
- Look for what’s broken
- Look for what’s working
The first option probably feels more familiar. We are used to looking at what’s wrong, broken, or not working. But we limit ourselves (and the outcomes) when we only try to pinpoint what we can fix.
- We miss people’s potential and their gifts.
- We try to make ourselves into “the hero”.
- We attempt to change the existing “system” (team, community, relationship) too fast.
If we can train ourselves to look for what’s working, we organically shift the orientation of a system.
- Amplify people’s gifts and they’ll naturally want to do more.
- Integrate into the system that’s in place and you’ll increase your leverage to create change from the inside out.
- Focus on microshifts; sustainable change happens incrementally.
When we hold people, teams, and communities as capable, adaptive, and full of potential, they are.
***
Some Things I Read Last Week:
- Seth Godin: Maintainers “School trains people to work as maintainers…A few people somehow avoid these lessons and become instigators, impresarios and disruptors instead…And it’s hard to do both at the same time. Choose wisely.”
- NYTimes: What if You Always Had Friday Off? Why Don’t You? “Last week, Microsoft Japan inspired a flood of stories after reporting that, in a trial, shortened weeks had boosted productivity by about 40 percent…The reasons that a four-day workweek hasn’t yet taken hold are varied. Some barriers are institutional and some are cultural. And then there’s the most human reason of all: inertia.”
What I’m Working On This Week:
Holding agreements. If I agree to do something, then I will. I’m starting with agreements I’ve broken with myself. Hello, early bedtime!