“It is encouraging to hear someone talk about a potential solution to the nitty gritty, the boring, unsexy, but absolutely critical aspects of the ‘how’. Most discussions to date are about the high level dreams and seem to ignore the practicalities and the tough issues.”

This was said in response to a very short overview of the data trust thinking that I’ve written about in few previous posts (power, opportunity, & trustees) and made a short podcast about.

It was encouraging to hear and yet also sad. Sad because it is a reflection of how many good ideas and dreams fail to execute. It’s a reminder too at how difficult it is to bring about change. That while not every little detail needs to be worked out and clear, some do.

Our dreams and ideas are often in response to a problem, a frustration; something being not the way we want. But these problems and frustrations are often a result of or a part of a system. The system (sometimes an organisation) has processes, people, culture and a context. And yes, where there are people, there are power dynamics. To help unpack these different aspects I created the Courageous Change Framework. We need more dreams to become reality and perhaps this will help.

Every idea, every project has critical and difficult parts, when we address them, we can finally soar.

Photo by Kyle Hinkson