Part Two Why some change is scary

To move your mountain requires some soul searching. Start by asking yourself how to I do things around here?

Once you ask the question of yourself and your friends you can see how you have unwritten rules about what can and can’t be done, and how these rules influence your actions. If you are lucky you will also begin to see the ways in which people around you are or aren’t aligned around  your  purpose.

So you can start your change process by working with your team of friends to help you Develop a vision and purpose, Revise your un-written rules that limit your effectiveness and begin to facilitate honest dialogue to create aligned action.

This first step is scary because it involves self awareness and reflection about who we really are, and for some of us we cannot answer the question

The next step in making your changes is to focus on the following personal skill sets you have in place (or not) to help you achieve the personal change you need:

Technical skills What if any skill sets do you need to develop to lead you successfully into the change you want, for example if I want to change my weight, I have to learn the technical skills about food, about dieting, about exercise, as well as I need to develop

Interpersonal skills I need as well as the Leadership skills necessary to help me build my team of people that will help me achieve my goal.

Only by including the inner work of personal change along with the outer work of strategy and skill development can you start to change.

So know that you have focused on understanding what skills you must develop and what habits must be changed you are on your way to being highly successful. Now start to invest in doing: Start by

Developing individuals’ skills

Defining competencies and finally

Promoting habits of peak performance

Once this is done you begin to realize that individuals thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about what a specific change really mean. You recognize that implementing change puts pressure on your individual:

• Values

• Identity

• Sense of purpose

You see that until you can make personal sense of the change, it is hard for you to really buy-in. And that without buy-in it’s hard to get anything more than their a superficiall change.You start to  naturally invest in guiding yourself through the inner shifts—psychologically, emotionally, spiritually—that will commit yourself to making the change successful.

Great change involves passion, purpose, and fun.In fact, to paraphrase no less a pragmatist than Dr. Edward Deming (often called the father of quality, http://www.deming.org/ ) proclaimed to leaders that, “There can be no transformation without personal transformation.”

Much of what is termed resistance to change is the struggle you have, individually with reorganizing your sense of identity, meaning, values, and sense of possibilities. You are not resistant. You are struggling with an inner journey. You need help to make this inner journey. If you don't get help the way most change efforts are constructed means you will fail to achieve the change you want. You will change but not to the extent that you want or perhaps need to change. So, is real change possible? Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our current problems using the same level of awareness that created them.” Ask yourself some questions and then reflect on your answers:

What am I doing or not doing that is limiting the desired result?

What unwritten rules are promoting/limiting the desired result?

What power dynamics are promoting/limiting the desired result?

EWhat aspects of the system are promoting the desired result?

What aspects of the system are limiting the desired result?

In your reflection ask yourself these questions:

• What do your answers to these questions suggest?

• Where do you need to put your attention in order to change