I just had a moment of truth …A grand realisation that perhaps I really am that different and special. Perhaps I truly should be challenging the status quo, not by creating my own status quo but by tearing down captivity and building foundations of freedom. I continue to have conversations with people that seem truly open minded but with some more investigation I realise that they might have adopted language that ‘keeps them on the edge’ but that their approach and expectation of life still very much resembles the industrial revolution – top down, hierarchical, unilateral, etc. It will work for a little longer but the world is a different place today…
What I have come to realise is that the tool of control has served us (modern society in general) rather well over the last century or so. The challenge now is that control is no longer as useful as it once was. The scientific approach to business management was all about that. The leader was the one who controlled, knew everything and was infallible. That kind of leadership will pass soon and only businesses and leaders that embrace connection, trust and complexity will last.
This is the next step. Leaders must become facilitators in order to trust the organisation’s future to everyone involved. Yet few people are willing to push for this kind of change. What is much more likely is that people stick to their old ways, ways that are not so threatening, in order to keep their position of power. I have seen this very often in the business environment. Due to different influences people don’t want to change and most of the time right at the centre of it all sits some kind of fear.
I don’t think that my mind or abilities are that special or different but I do believe that they are geared towards a specific purpose to which I need to pay more attention. I know that through my efforts on this blog, academic talents and abilities to write, facilitate and teach I can devote my life to a great passion for change. It is a gift-set, passion and awareness that few other people share and because of that I am excited. Within that lies my unique contribution and realising it has really been a moment of truth for me; a little like when the winemaker gets to taste the grapes of the season for the first time. In that instance everything that has led up to that moment, every element comes together to reveal the special character of that season. It helps me to go from survive to alive.
