Change

Choose to Change or face the consequences of your unchanging

Leadership Blog for Sparkworks Network

Our lives are inexplicably shaped by events we cannot control.

I was 21 when Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and triggered what we now know as the “Great Recession.” The scars that that singular event has left upon our Towns and Cities still haven’t faded. At the time, I believed it to be the defining event of my working life, and the most consequential event of my lifetime.

Or so I thought.

Since the “Great Recession” of 2007, there ended up being quite a few defining moments. Climate catastrophe, Brexit, and a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, to name a few. And, just a few weeks ago, I found myself driving around Bromley in search of petrol due to a brand new crisis that had developed.

It feels like for most of my working life, I have oscillated from one crisis to another.

Naomi Klein in her book, ‘Shock Doctrine,' quotes the famed economist Milton Friedman,

 “Only a crisis-actual or perceived-produces real change. When the crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.” 

She later adds,  

“We do not always respond to shocks with regression. Sometimes, in the face of a crisis, we grow up—fast.”

So the question we face as leaders is not what to do when a crisis hits, rather how do I change to meet the demands of my new reality?

We typically respond in one of three ways: 

First, we seek to create a better routine. We tend to do this through having greater self-discipline, forming better habits, increasing our exercise, eating healthier, or even trying to master the self. Healthier routines can absolutely provide the foundations to pursue change. There are entire industries devoted to the development of a “better-self.” Yet, how do we decide which is the best routine for us, and what actually provides the results we are looking for?

Secondly, we also seek out better relationships. Can we find someone to really trust? Or someone to be vulnerable with? What about someone who encourages us? Or someone we can laugh with? Positive relationships provide the support and encouragement we need to pursue change. Again, there is another huge industry attached to this. Finding the right friendships and to what level that friendship influences us, is a major factor in determining our level of change. In every relationship, there is always a flow of play that can reinforce our own biases or challenge our preconceived notions.  But, how do we find this person? And, how do we know their underlying motivations?

Finally, we seek out better responsibilities. I have said this before in a previous post, but we live out what we have chosen to be responsible for. Our career choices and our family choices define us. So, when change is staring us down, our response can often be to take up greater responsibilities knowing that greater leadership is required. Or, do we go the other way and try to change our responsibilities to match our level of comfortability?

In each area, what we are essentially looking for is new or better knowledge. Knowledge undergirds every attempt at change. What we do not yet know is far more important than what we already know. But, how do we continue to acquire knowledge? We acquire it in the process. That is the human story. It’s the basis of our greatest literature, art, television, and films. To meet the demands of our reality, we go on a journey and it is on that journey that we acquire new knowledge and change. Consider every meaningful relationship you have. When we desire the other person to truly get to know us, the conversation inevitably develops into the story we want to tell about ourselves. Fundamentally, we want to be understood and the only way that can happen is when we increase the other person's knowledge of ourselves.

While our capacity for knowledge consumption is incredible, our capacity for change is not. Testing whether the knowledge we are receiving creates change for the better is critical. Over the last decade, this has taken on even more significance as we are bombarded with misinformation masquerading as knowledge. Here are a number of useful questions to test the efficacy of what you are hearing: 

1.     Knowledge opens your eyes to new opportunities. Is the knowledge you’re acquiring creating greater awareness of what is in front of you? 

2.     Knowledge increases the breadth and depth of your learning. Is the knowledge you are acquiring creating openness to learn from different places? To learn at a greater capacity than what you currently are?

3.     Knowledge turns the mirror onto yourself first. Is the knowledge you are acquiring allowing you to master the things that have controlled you?

4.     Knowledge colours our view of the world. Is the knowledge you’re acquiring increasing cynicism and creating conspiratorial views of the world? Or is it creating greater clarity and a commitment to better the world around you?

 5. Knowledge speaks to who you are becoming. Is the knowledge you are acquiring speaking to the person you want to become? And, is it changing you for the better?