Author: Ray Rood

Over this past very unusual year I have had the opportunity to be involved in an increasing number of coaching conversations about how best to navigate the changing world in which we live and work. Some of these conversations have been about personal life transitions and some about changing work-related roles and responsibilities. A major theme emerging out of all of these conversations has been the discovery of the significance of individual initiative, its related risks, and responsibilities in any change process, whether it be personal or organizational in nature.

​For the past twenty years or so, one of my favorite references for my organizational consultation has been the classic book, Deep Change, by Robert Quinn, which has helped me realize that every organization seems to be moving in one of two directions, “deep change” or “slow death.” This belief has, for a number of years, been the foundational assumption of our vision base strategic planning work within Genysys. It has only been in the last few years that I have realized the true significance of the subtitle of Deep Change, which is Discovering the Leader Within, and the essential role that it plays within any form of deep change, organizationally and personally. For an organization, I have concluded that it takes a critical mass (five or more) of individuals who think and act as leaders for deep transformational change to occur. For individuals, it is up to each person to be his or her own leader and take the initiative in pursuing needed and/or desired change.

I have come to believe that within most individuals is undeveloped leadership capacity. I have witnessed its emergence both in times of crisis and overtime if there is a sufficient balance between the elements of challenge and support. Furthermore, I believe that most individuals will face their own leadership challenge/opportunity when they realize that they are alone and on their own, whether or not they are inside an organization. It is at this point, that the individual determines whether or not to take leadership over his/her own circumstance(s), personally and/or organizationally. It is because of these dynamics that I see leadership and adulthood as being quite synonymous in nature since at the heart of both being a leader and an adult is individual initiative, responsibility, and aloneness.

As I was writing these reflections, I thought of the lines of a poem by the Irish poet, Donovan Leitch which I am dedicating to the emerging leader within all of us, especially at those times when we face that leadership opportunity most often disguised as a challenge or problem:

Recently I was approached by an HR professional who was curious about how the vision work that we do in Genysys might address the polarization of relationships in the workplace. The environment of polarization continues to escalate in today’s world. His question reminded me of a comment of a participant in an envisioning workshop that I facilitated almost ten years ago. This workshop was for members of a historical society that was deeply divided over what to do with a very unique asset. They had been given a castle in the middle of the local community. A majority of the society members didn’t want to have anything to do with the castle.

​

After the workshop one of the participants, who represented the majority of those who wanted nothing to do with the castle, came up to me and after thanking me for being willing to facilitate this workshop in such a contentious environment, made the following comment: “The common vision that we were able to develop today about the future of the castle has brought needed healing to our society.”​
​

Upon reflection, I believe that the key to developing some healing and common ground was first to identify the common questions that all of the participants had about the future of the castle beyond the present reality. As they thought beyond five years, which is where we in Genysys begin, it was amazing the common ground in interests, hopes, and concerns that began to emerge. When the results of the visioning exercise around the questions of the long-term future of the castle began to be shared the participants began to see that they often had much more in common about the future than they ever thought possible. As one participant indicated, “Eighty percent of what we shared today is common and/or complementary, our problem was that we had, up to now, no forum or way to discover our common ground.”

​

Here are two questions that might help in discovering common ground in an environment of polarized differences:

​

1. What common questions do we, in any group of which we are a part (work, family, community, church, etc.), have about our future beyond five years?
2. How does each participant answer these questions as they look to that year of focus beyond five years?

​

The common and complementary responses to those answers can provide a bridge of hope for a common and positive future for those involved as it was for the historical society and its castle.