As you evolve and your seeing becomes both broader and deeper, you begin to realize that change is very similar at all levels of reality. Personal change parallels the same dynamics that occur in organizational change, which also models planetary change pretty darn well. The difference is scale. You, as an individual self, are also an organization in your own right, just smaller. Metaphorically, the many different biological functions within you are similar to the different departments and functions within your company, which function similarly to nations within the world. You have an inner world – your mindset, beliefs and consciousness – just as your company has an inner world called its culture. Significant personal or organizational transformation cannot happen or sustain without a shift of mindset and culture, just as planetary change cannot occur without a shift in world culture.
Change is process, and the change process at the personal, relational, team, organization, and planetary levels follows similar laws. One key process step at all levels is building a case for change. I don’t mean writing one, I mean getting the case for change fully understood by the person or people undergoing change. Once understood, motivation for change rises and resistance goes down because the change simply makes sense.
My main interest these days is planetary change. When I look at the world as an organization, I clearly see that we do not yet have alignment about the case for change. Many people, stuck in the blinders of their own ideologies, refuse to look at, listen to, or integrate knowledge and facts about the state of our world. Without a critical mass of people truly understanding the case for global change, we will continue to have extreme difficulty getting aligned action across the globe that delivers positive results.
So here is a book I recommend you read and share with everyone you know: The World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse, by Lester Russell Brown.
Lester Brown is the president of the Earth Policy Institute, and author of numerous books on the state of the world. Why is his information so important? Simply because it provides countless data points, beyond ideology, of the current reality of planet earth and the state humanity is in across the world. This information frames the case for global change. The more people who understand the state of the world, the more motivation we will collectively have to make positive change. Lester does a fantastic job presenting the facts, and the facts – the information – is ultimately the catalyst for transformation.
Please read the book, share the book, and initiate dialogues with your family, co-workers and friends, about the facts in the book.
Now here is my caution: don’t evangelize the need for planetary change so that you inadvertantly trigger people’s resistance to such an idea. Rather, simply share the information with them so they have to think about it. If the info can get into their minds without being manipulated unconsciously by their current beliefs and ideologies, then it will drive change in their thinking. But if your over-zealous impulse to “make change happen” in them triggers their resistance, then the book’s information cannot do its magic.
Again, organizational and planetary change are very similar processes with very similar human and process dynamics. I would provide this same piece of advice regarding providing facts versus enthused ideology when building the case for change in stakeholders in the organizational changes that you lead or support.
I hope you enjoy the book, but let me warn you; it won’t make you feel good, but it may make you want to help lead social and planetary transformation.
Let me know what you think of the book.
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