|
January 2010
By Laurie Ohmann, CEO
I decided to try out my new snowshoes last week at Springbrook Nature Center. It was the last hour of daylight when I headed alone into the woods, lost in thought amidst the crunching of icy snow.
New Year’s Day. The first opportunity to claim success with annual resolutions. Trouble was, I hadn’t made any. Why was that? I’d made plenty before; why not this year? The beginning of a new decade no less?
My thoughts turned to the last few years and to the commitments I’d made to “do” some new things or do them differently or to “be” something else. Hmmm ... evidence suggests I’m no more healthy or fit than years past. Last year’s efforts to reconnect with people fell short of expectations soon into the year, although productive while it lasted. My kids certainly don’t experience more discipline with the “allowance-for-chores” thing. Not exactly success.
I stopped to view the sun setting over the frozen pond and to warm my numbing fingers. Why haven’t my New Year’s resolutions resulted in changed behaviors or practices for me?
So there I am in the -11º wind chill “in the question”- that is, practicing staying with a question, and ones that result from it, in order to generate deeper meaning or additional options rather than rushing to an answer. My question about why previous New Year’s resolutions hadn’t triggered the results I was looking for got me to thinking about the movie, Invictus, which I’d seen the night before. How was it that Nelson Mandela came away from years of confinement and isolation to pursue unification in post-apartheid South Africa? And did so without malice? In other complex situations where I’d worked, how had the large urban school district made such gains in student achievement? Or the finance agency improved compliance with tax policy? Or the family services department reduced the time in out-of-home placements for abused children?
Amidst my plodding, I started to mentally categorize these examples of real change, and others I was familiar with that had less impact, looking for insight as to why some had been successful in dramatically improving results and others only marginally so. While the differences in these organizations were many, one thing was profoundly similar. They had singularity of purpose. Mandela - Unity. School district - Ensure student learning. Finance agency- Helping people pay the right amount on time. Family Services - Permanency and safety for children. With that, each then, in its own way, linked as many aspects of their work as best they could to their vision of success.
Along with a total focus on their “end state,” they had an explicit theory about what would produce that success and made choices about how to foster the changes that were needed. Sometimes it meant changing how they discussed data. Or what they asked of their leaders and managers. Or having front-line employees diagram the links backwards from their front-line service to customers to the support they received in delivering it from other parts of the organization. Or in how they contracted for results with providers. Or sometimes asking the simplest of questions like “how does this help students learn?” in each of the extended debates that took place on a range of school district agenda items. Their “being in the question” consistently elevated their purpose to consciousness and helped to reinforce it. It also helped them to clarify their vision and begged them to regularly test whether their theory of how to make that vision a reality was working. If it wasn’t working, they had questions about why not and the platform for making necessary modifications.
Perhaps just committing to “do” new things or promising to “be different” wasn’t the route to success in New Year’s resolutions as much as having singularity of purpose coupled with the passion and discipline to see each of our actions through that lens and to question their contribution. How often might that help us focus daily on the top priorities, as opposed to the urgent interruptions? Or cause us to reflect on our approach to achieving our goals more frequently than an annual review or the occasional retreat?
Maybe the difference that will make a difference for me this year is not resolving to “do;” rather, staying in inquiry about how to persistently focus on my purpose. For I have an end state in mind and am open to learning and trying different things. From here forward, then, I’ll work to “be in the question” about my passion and purpose, asking more frequently how my work contributes to improving public value and public trust.
What will make the difference for you as you pursue your purpose with passion? |
