Freedom's Just Another Word
By Peter Block
--Next
time you start to enroll others in a change,
--Stop.
--Ask.
--Do you, too, want to be enrolled?
--How would it feel if,
--Someone else had a plan for you,
--A business plan and
--You were their targeted customer,
--You were their niche market,
--You were demographically ideal,
--You were their target for
transformation?
--All
presented to you as a response to your needs.
--You
will have become:
--A code, not a person,
--An income level,
--A job title,
--A consumer,
--A desire waiting to be discovered.
--So
in their business plan, their change strategy, they
--Are meeting today to decide how to
get you on board.
--They think you are adrift, in the
water.
--Ship is leaving soon, better get on
board.
--Can
we count on you? Are you aligned?
--Do you feel the heat of the burning
platform?
--Are you ready to enroll? Readiness
is everything.
--We
don't want to rush you. We need your whole person.
--Spirit, mind and soul only, need
apply. We already have
--Your body. Boring. Not enough.
--If
you are not ready, then we have a literacy problem.
--You could not possibly disagree, you
must not understand.
--You can not see the whole picture.
--So
now, be enrolled, relax, be aligned, team player.
--Help cascade the change down. They
have become we.
--Take it to scale.
--But
what do we do with the deadwood?
--Start a fire, perhaps a fire sale.
--Clothe them with some portable
skills, portable pension.
--Transition management, not caused by
us,
--Caused by the inevitable
restructuring of the marketplace.
--Adam Smith, the invisible man,
guilty again.
--Since
we can't fire anyone, we help them see
--It is a problem of fit. Their foot
and our shoe.
--No one's fault.
--No fault divorce. No fault
insurance, no fault termination.
--Counseling on the way out, see it as
a growth experience.
--God's way of telling you that your
work in this place
--Is done.
--Now
just us. Survivors. Enrolled. Aligned.
--Common language, common skills.
Rowing together.
--Market driven, customer focused.
Value analyzed.
--Incented, One mind, one purpose.
--What
a country.
--What a healthy place to work.
--Find a mall. Shop by phone, by net,
--Keyboard conversations.
--Come as you are. Unseen.
--What's
on T.V. tonight? Maybe a video.
--Set the alarm. Wake up to easy
listening. WFIX.
--Forty-five minutes of talk free,
commercial free Listening.
--Lead, follow or fall asleep.
--Freedom's just another word.
--Change
that offers hope,
--Based on faith is
--A state of mind first, body second.
--Transformation
is becoming more of who we are.
--The
mind that needs shifting is our own.
--Their mind is just fine.
--If
there is deadwood, let it be us.
--We have choice only over what is in
the mirror.
--Want top management support?
--Want allies, constituency, be part
of a larger movement?
--Find
a mirror: There is top management.
--There
is your role model
--On
November 9, Jimmy Carter said, "America is a country whose highest
possible achievement is to be a citizen."
--In this sentence he wrote the book.
--Now we just have to fill in the
pages.
--So
we are in search of citizens
--Others
who care for the whole, willing to engage.
--Surrender to an idea.
--Find their voice.
--Willing to speak of doubt. Failure.
Answerless questions.
--Citizens
know they can not bowl alone.
--They care about place,
--Yield on territory.
--See capacities, not needs.
--All the wood is alive when we are
all we've got.
--Change
happens when we find others.
--Invite them to come together.
--Convene those who do the work, form
a circle, no wagons.
--The
circle will decide on strategy for itself.
--It knows what it needs for fuel and
knowledge.
--We
know what we don't know, we just pretend
--We have forgotten.
--Faith
is what is required.
--Betting on what is possible. That we
can
--Overcome our own history.
--We can motivate ourselves.
--Use
the language of reception, surprise.
--Not knowing.
--Offer freedom in exchange for
failure.
--Discovery.
--Bosses
join the circle. Sit as members.
--Crown left at the door. Partners, no
parents.
--Enrollment
and alignment occurs the moment we enter the room.
--Language of invitation, nothing
driven or installed.
--What
do we want to create together.
--Freedom's
just another word for what we have
--Given away.
--And
can reclaim
This
article appeared in
News for a Change published by AQP in December 1997
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