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failure

Questioning Change

June 10, 2012 By Shae Hadden

“Remain introspective and open about your theory of change.”
Joe Brewer

I have great compassion for leaders today. They have to interact with multiple, complex systems as they are changing. And time and time again, we watch them successfully enroll people to participate in changing the world and then, just as unsuccessfully, see their grandiose plans to make things better play out in strings of failures.

What are we missing?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this in the last 3 weeks. Joe Brewer’s words have stuck with me….perhaps because they run so contrary to the way many of us relate to change. Growing up, I was taught to make sure I’m asking the ‘right’ questions and then find the ‘right’ answers. As if there was a right and wrong way to deal with things. Fine for simple basics like homework and high school relationships. Not so fine when it comes to the intricacies of adult life and the systemic breakdowns we’re witnessing in the world.

When it comes to complex, inter-related systems that are rapidly changing, the ‘problem/solution’ mindset seems to be falling short of what’s needed. 

Take a medical emergency, for example. When you have multiple health issues going on at once and something out of the ordinary happens, you want the doctors to look at as much of the picture as possible. It’s as if you intuitively know just looking at one or two facts will be insufficient. You want the doctors to keep asking questions, to keep looking at and paying attention to as many things as possible. If they don’t, widespread systemic breakdowns—or even death—may be in your future.

The same applies to creative projects. The challenge for me now in writing this book is to continue to question all my assumptions, ask powerful questions, be open to new inputs and new insights. This dynamically creative thinking space is where, I think, I can better grasp the complexity of coaching. Where I can let go of old mental models that no longer work. Where I can keep learning and adapting the book’s content to the changes happening in the world.

Perhaps the same applies to leadership. If we as leaders can remain skeptical about how the world is supposed to work and stay with the discomfort of not having a ‘quick fix’ solution, we may succeed in creating a world that does work.

Creative Commons License

This blog post by Shae Hadden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Filed Under: Success & Failure Tagged With: coaching, failure, success, writing

Staying Power

April 8, 2012 By Shae Hadden

“Burning desire to be or do something gives us staying power – a reason to get up every morning or to pick ourselves up and start in again after a disappointment.”
Marsha Sinetar

My author friends warned me about writer’s block. They had me read books about dealing with my own resistance to writing. They quietly shared about the weird things that happen in your life to teach you what you need to know for your book. The “Why did I ever begin this?” doubts. The setbacks. The life challenges that interfere with your plans.

Experienced all these. Thanks. Enough already.

But no one talked about a crazy madness that compels you to move forward, someway, somehow, no matter what happens. When all reason and logic says stop, put this aside, do something else, take a break. Step away. And you just can’t.

The Universe seems to conspire to have it that way with this book.

The very minute I thought of throwing in the towel this week, a publishing company called my cell with an invitation to contact them about my book. (Thanks very much, I already have a publisher.)

And then I had a wonderful conversation in which a businesswoman told me she doesn’t even think in terms of failure. She just keeps learning…and eventually succeeds. What great coaching!

Tomorrow, this book is the reason I’m getting up.

Creative Commons License

This blog post by Shae Hadden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Image by PatternPictures from Pixabay

Filed Under: Desire Tagged With: coaching, desire, failure, resistance, writing

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