Real Change: The Power of a Declaration
October 2005
During the past month we have encountered a number of incidents that “forced” our clients and friends to wake up and contemplate implementing significant change. Three leaders lost jobs, another fell asleep at the wheel at 6 pm on the way home, and one discovered a key employee was telling lies. All of them were thinking about addressing their situation prior to the crisis. None of these competent professionals, however, were able to “step outside of business as usual” strongly enough to solve their problem before something dramatic happened. It's hard to address what’s not working. Why?
With all of our clients who find themselves stuck, there is always a sense of the impossible: some version of “I can't” or “I have to”. The fear of making a mistake, disappointing someone, or ending up without financial security steals our vitality and courage if we allow it to. When we succumb to fear, our internal “mind prisons” keep us enslaved to our struggle. This is neither fun nor effective.
However, thrust into an emergency, we often surprise ourselves. Without the time to think and rationalize, we “thoughtlessly” expand into inspired action toward what is necessary. There's a spontaneous, courageous burst of creativity that was inside of us all along. We just needed an emergency to pull it out of us. We are extraordinary people when we don't think about what could go wrong! What brings out that extraordinary quality?
We all have a passion for contribution. It's either very accessible or quite latent, waiting to be awakened. Did you notice the outpouring of donations and contributions after Katrina? Two things happened that triggered extraordinary action. People's hearts were called forth by the emergency. But people also woke up to the human suffering that was already there. We had our blinders taken away: we could see the poverty that had been there all along.
So there are at least two roads to real change:
- Wait for the next external event or a bigger emergency to ignite your heart. You know it's just a matter of time until you have no choice. But that's not the way of a real leader.
- Create an emergency out of your current “what's not working.” Be willing to see the struggle, pain and cost that are already there. This requires the heart of a leader. It takes courage, but it will save you a tremendous amount of trouble.
And LionHeart proposes a third alternative that works along with the first two options. Our approach will preempt your struggle and the need for an emergency in the first place. Speak and act upon a declaration that breaks you out of what you think is possible (see our reading recommendation for an empowering book on this topic). Look deeply at what you care about. Forget about what's possible and state what must be, with conviction and a commitment to action.
What are the principles of a declaration?
- You must be speaking in an arena where you have authority; and that's a bigger arena than you give yourself credit for.
- You must reclaim your power and know that you are the only one who says “what's possible” and “what's not possible” in your world.
- You need no evidence or proof that what you are committed to as a possibility could be realized.
- You are willing to shift your way of being to be consistent with your declaration, putting aside who you've been before.
- You are willing to stand in the reality that there is no one way things should be, and that anything is possible; or that what was once considered “wrong” could later be viewed as “right” and vice versa.
- You are unattached to the outcome and unafraid of failure, focusing totally on the new actions that the declaration calls forth from your heart.
- You do not need to “know how” when you begin, and you trust that if the declaration carries a truth from your heart, you will discover the steps along your path.
But what if we don't successfully achieve what we declare? History is full of failed attempts and experiments that ultimately led to a new reality that was better than what would have occurred without the failure. Inspired action is always preferable than letting the dreams in your heart wither and die.
LionHeart offers our declaration that is “impossible” on one hand, and changing lives in a real and meaningful way on the other hand: we stand for the possibility of business leaders shifting their focus from “accumulating wealth at all costs” to “offering products and services that genuinely enrich the planet.” Call it a new bottom line! It is time for our country to wake up to the global crisis that threatens our environment, our economy, and our children's future. We need to reinvent the way we do business, and that will only occur when we open the hearts of business leaders to a more meaningful opportunity. Transformation occurs when we think globally, and personally “become the change we wish to see.” If you are interested in learning how to challenge your own view of what's possible, please contact us at 503.632.8572.