… but you can’t make him drink.’

One of the gifts (o.’r curses?) of change makers is that they often ‘see’ the need for change before others do. This can result in trying to ‘sell’ someone or a team something they themselves don’t want or know they need. And this results in frustration on all sides.

Change makers also tend to feel a sense of urgency. The needed change must happen today otherwise catastrophe will result! And yet, catastrophe rarely happens.

When we ‘see’ the change required, what would happen if we paused and thought about those who will be impacted by the change. What if we spent time understanding their needs, their challenges – their ‘wants’. Perhaps the better we understand their perspective, their wants, we can shape the stories we share to help them begin to ‘see’ what we do.

We rarely change because we are told to. We tend to change because we want to. Or better put, we change because we come to see that the ‘new way’ is more beneficial to us than the ‘old way’. The thing is ‘beneficial’ is defined by the person changing.

It’s not a fast process, but change rarely is.

Photo by Tim Mossholder