One of the subjects that the various "practice areas" of FirstMatter has to do with is change. I don't present FirstMatter as a "change management" outfit, but we are often times called upon to identify the destination for a company/organization that has come to realize that they can no longer "stay" in their current "location".
There is no doubt, at least to me, that change only happens when the pain of where you are is greater than the perceived pain of where you are will end up ... even when you don't know what, it (where you will end up) looks like yet.
It's not enough to just identify the destination, the journey to that destination is long and very hard. It takes collaboration, determination, tenacious leadership (that can let go and let it all unfold from bottom up) and a vision. the leadership must pay attention to detail while not micro-managing ... and demand and deliver on accountability.
We do know skills that allow "ecosystems of people" to identify who they are; and, skills, which they don't currently have that need to be added to those skills that they do have in order to get to the destination. FirstMatter would not be the outfit one would use to make the trek, just to make the map. We have other treks that we need to take here.
Anyway, the biggest stumbling block in changing is ... perception. Perception is, again in my opinion, the absolute hardest thing to change. This is why I was so interested in a piece that came my way about a test conducted by The Washington Post. The experiment was created to study ... "perception, taste and people's priorities". They hired (?) Joshua Bell to play the violin in a D.C. metro station as if he were a "panhandler". Joshua Bell may be the icon of today's violinists ... (I've heard him play)!! Mr. Bell played for 45 minutes (six Bach pieces) on a violin valued at $3,500,000!! (Funny ... as he keeps leaving it in cabs ... but always gets it back!!). Hundreds, if not thousands of people walked by. About 20 people gave a total of $32. Only six people stopped for any appreciable period of time. One child wanted to stay and listen, but his mother pulled him along without looking at the artist even once. There was no applause upon Bell's conclusion. No recognition of any kind was noted.
The questions raised in the report I read included ... in an uncommon contest can we recognize beauty? ... talent? Do we adjust when in an uncommon context?
So, my questions to you ... where are your perceptions changing and where are they not changing?
A good question(s) for a month's worth of thought. Have a good one.
Cheers
W2
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