Leaders play a critical role when it comes to change. Whether your team is facing large organizational transitions or smaller (yet still painful) procedural adjustments, you need to help everyone cope with and successfully implement different ways of doing things. Here are a few ideas to remember and use:

• Don’t plant seeds in untilled soil! Just as in nature, the seeds of organizational change need to be planted in soil that has been prepared to accept the germinating ideas. So, involve others in the planning and cultivating of change initiatives. And remember that the ground has to be fertilized with rich additives, so supply information outlining the good business reasons for the change.
   
• Prioritize for change. You will not have enough time to take care of everything that comes along during transitional periods. Therefore, make sure you help team members prioritize and take care of the things that matter most. Start a priority list and arrange it in High, Medium, and Low order. Complete the High priorities before progressing to the Medium … and then the Low.
   
• Monitor your team’s temperature. Once a week, have a short, informal “how are things going” chat with each person who reports to you. And pay attention to how team members behave and interact with one another – especially when working on tasks and projects that involve significant change with specified deadlines. If you sense that things aren’t right, investigate each potential problem and take whatever action is appropriate to “nip it in the bud.”

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished!
~ Benjamin Franklin

 If this quote is true, I can hardly think of one organization that I know that is fully engaged. Why? Because organizations are complex systems with so many personalities and each life has its own demands pulling at it, that often this defeats our intention to be fully engaged in our lives or our work, add to that an overwhelmed leadership and you have a struggling organization instead of one that is fully engaged. How many of us say, “today I will be emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned so that I can meet the needs of my staff and accomplish the goals I have on my to do list.” I am guessing that very few of us do that.

 How many of us check in with our inner voice throughout the day to stay on target and in the zone of full engagement. I wonder how many organizations are being dismantled because they lacked full engagement with their donors, their constituents, their funders and their staff? Were people too focused on staying out of the red, and sacrificing as a result the building of relationships? Were the communities engaged in the cause and also expected to participate with enthusiasm and ownership? I wonder….

 On the other hand, I do know people who are Fully Engaged and their common denominator is that they have balance in their lives and are very self aware of their impact on others and how their energy is affecting their teams and their colleagues. They too fall off the wagon sometimes, but they tend to get right back on and acknowledge their mistakes. I see these people in some of the most successful organizations that I know, and it makes me want to be a part of them in some way shape or form. I want to be part of their collective impact on society to feel the reward of positive change.

I just read, “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch, once a professor, before his untimely death at Carnegie Mellon.  I was beyond curious to read what a Computer Science Professor would write down as his final words.  Would they have wisdom along the lines of the Power of Now, The Four Agreements,  Zero Limits and other titles that are written by authors that dedicate their lives to self awareness and human development?   I never put the book down once I started reading.  It was so authentic, so real, so moving.  I know that he was about my age, and leaving 3 children and a dedicated wife in this world, but that wasn’t what moved me to tears.  It was the section on failure.  He would award his students an award for taking the biggest risk as a team and having the greatest failure as a result, he called it “The First Penguin Award.”   He wanted them to value glorious failure and redefine failure as a stepping stone towards greatness.  I just thought in that moment that my life would have reached greater heights so much earlier if I had been fortunate enough to have him as a teacher or professor.  That application of failure as an experience needed in life struck me as true wisdom, not because of the concept alone, but how he applied it to his students.  He glorified the failure to show them how important it was to have the experience of it to move on and have success in the future.  The title of Penguin came from the idea that there was always a first penguin to jump into the cold icy water that would potentially have predators.  But, it was that first jump of that first Penguin that allowed others to take the risk and help the species survive through the ages.  Without that instinct to risk being eaten alive, they would all safely stay on land but the species would fail and die in one generation.  So, at that moment I remembered how I felt when I failed Genetics as an undergrad at UCSB.   I felt I was no longer fit to continue as a biologist, and that it was something I could not share with my parents or anyone because I had never failed a class in my entire life.  I was quite the perfectionist when it came to my grades and that was a blow to my entire identity, I had also secretly turned down UC Berkeley, and at that moment began to question my judgment of that and so many other decisions.   I needed Randy Pausch, or someone like him at that moment.  I was doing well otherwise as Biology major at UCSB,  but imagining virtual DNA mutations 7 steps ahead of the map without knowing an outcome was not an exercise I was accustomed to, and my professor was not very forgiving.  So, I went to a lagoon near the Ocean, cried my eyes out for hours.  Then, magically felt reconnected to my source again because I was surrounded by nature.  Fortunately for me, I realized it was nature I loved , not just the study of it, and I made a decision that day to switch my major to Environmental Studies, a path that has served me well and has aligned me with some  amazing opportunities.  So, for the young people out there, don’t be afraid to fail, fail while you are young  as many times as possible!  Just don’t lose the opportunity to reflect on that failure to understand how to make the changes to succeed in the future.  All of us at any age can use this wonderful redefinition of failure.  But I think the catch is, it’s good to fail as long as you’re are trying your best, and doing something for the greater good, not just selfishly.  This type of  failure will re-incarnate one day as the success you had originally envisioned or better,  just don’t give up!  Thanks Professor Pausch, you are still teaching so many of us with your “Last Lecture.”

The good news is that you’re not alone in this journey of failure to success.  I’m here to help you find your way and make the right decisions that will change your life and, ultimately, the world around you.

Please contact me if you have any questions as you travel down the path of reflection.

 www.theinspiredplanet.com or marta@theinspiredplanet.com or http://twitter.com/inspiredplanet.com

“Your children are not your children.  They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.  They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.  You may give them your love but not your thoughts.  For they have their own thoughts.  You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.  You may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you.  For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.  You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.  The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.  Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; for even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.” – BY KAHLIL GIBRAN

You might wonder how to get past the fear-based thinking so you can make a difference in the world. Maybe you’re worried that your efforts won’t make a difference at all.  

First, stop with the worrying! I think it’s time to change that line of thinking and rediscover the character-building blocks that build great leadership skills. We must be confident that our world is filled with those of us who want to make a positive difference and will be supportive of us.  Then we must seek that mentorship and support.

Those leadership skills still exist within us all. We just need to dig deep, wipe away the cobwebs of neglect and uncover the inner wisdom and self-awareness that will help us resume our positions as the inspiring leaders we were meant to be.

Secondly, I also think that it all begins with forgiveness. First, we need to forgive ourselves for ignoring our inner voices, and then we need to forgive others for doing the same. Pointing the blame at a single person, entity or organization isn’t going to do any good.

We’ve been travelling a dark path toward a world that values material wealth and fame.  Now that the world seems to be crumbling around us, it’s time to take a close look at who we are as a nation and who we want to be collectively.  Then, we must also take action to be perceived as the change we seek by taking a path towards self awareness.

There is always time to turn things around and an abundance of support if we seek it,  so that we can leave a legacy of  prosperity and peace,  not one of fear and war.  But it will take some effort from those who have dedicated their lives to making the world a better place, a paradigm shift perhaps.

The good news is that you’re not alone in this journey.  I’m here to help you find your way and make the right decisions that will change your life and, ultimately, the world around you.

I want to help – please contact me if you have any questions as you travel down the path of reflection.

 www.theinspiredplanet.com or marta@theinspiredplanet.com or http://twitter.com/inspiredplanet.com

Marta Greeting Al Gore's Arrival near Air Force 1, with other Environmental Leaders from Los Angeles