Deep Change Versus Slow Death

Its the end of the week and I look up and see that I haven't posted anything since last Sunday. Not that I haven't thought of things to post this week (my draft folder has about 11 different posts that I've started and never finished) but it's been a busy week here with three teens and two puppies and Mom gone.

I started a new book this week. Deep Change (Robert Quinn) which is the original book that preceeded Building A Bridge As You Walk On It. Both books are about leadership, change and the fundamental state of leadership that must take place for change to happen in individuals and organizations.

Funny, I have gravitated back to management books (my undergrad was in Business Management) and my need to understand personal and organizational development.

I'm just a few pages into the book when I discover this phrase "most of us tend to prefer and choose slow death over deep change." Wow! In that one sentence is the description of society, organizations and individuals who are faced with ever changing external conditions and signals yet refuse to make the changes needed in our lives.

So that you won't think that I've gone totally crazy, I think this is true spiritually too. We tend to choose slow death in our spiritual lifes (spiritual stagnation) over deep change (spiritual growth). As Quinn states everything tends toward entropy (or slow death) unless we make the fundamental changes in our lives that keep us moving forward. Does this make sense to you?

I know it's true in my own life (and I'm somewhat there now) that if I don't continually keep myself moving forward in spiritual and mental endeavors, then I tend toward status quo, which is the worst place to be in. For me, status quo has no energy or life in it and I can't find anything in the Bible where Jesus said, just maintain until I get back.

I'll post more this weekend as I get further into this book. What do you think about the phrase "Deep change versus slow death"? Do you see it in your current situation in life?

Deep Change

Walking Naked In The Land of Uncertainty

After my post about the nudist church, I bet you're thinking that I have "naked" on the brain with the title of this post. However, the title of the post comes from a book that I've been reading where the author states that leaders must "walk naked in the land of uncertainty."

Once the shock of that image is out of your mind, go deeper with me into what the author is saying.

So many times as leaders when we hit the bumps of uncertainty and change in our organizations we tend to rely on past experiences, past skills, and past successes to get us through the waters. That works--sometimes. However there are those occasions where the situations requires new thinking and a new approach those matters. It is in those moments that Robert Quinn says that the leader must be able to "walk naked in the land of the uncertain"---meaning that he walks in with no defenses and no preconceived ideas of how to approach the matter and makes his own path through the waters.

Quinn states in these moments the leader enters a "Fundamental State of Leadership" wherein the leader is outwardly focused, inwardly driven, purposeful and authentic. That may sound like a tall order to fill in one setting, but Quinn says it's the natural response when the leader becomes the learner and the leader grows inwardly as he leads outwardly.

What do you think? Is it possible to "walk naked in the land of uncertainty?" Is that the normal response of a leader? Or is our natural response to return to the comfort zone and lead from there we've led before? I'd love to hear your thoughts.