Experiment with the Questions
While it is often challenging to experiment with something new, for many of us, it is even harder to let go or walk away. It is liberating when we become aware that in a world of opportunities and abundance, there is no need to give energy to the divisions and conflicts.
Organizations benefit greatly when they tap into their people’s talents and passions, and pursue with collective purpose the ideas that spurred the creation of their organizations in the first place. But too many people today are stuck leading, or following, with fear. It is easy to evoke fear; the fear of losing our job, our home, our family, our friends, our health, our ability to experiment and even our country can be evoked by a few images and words.
That fear can be paralyzing, and we often look to someone else for protection. Fear and competition can force us to retreat into our perceived safety and live in anger and hurt.
Of course, fear is also important. We are wise to fear jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, or punching a bear in the nose, but I am talking about illusory fears, which we are inundated with and which are very harmful.
It’s All an Experiment
Caring, connecting and meaning are cornerstones of this adventure. And yet, not everyone is being guided by a pure and beautiful purpose. There are people in the world who are on a journey of destruction with hearts filled with hatred and fear. They are stuck in this mindset, and we need to be aware of how their intentions can impact our own journey. Often, they are deeply divided and warring within themselves.
Imagine a world where our purpose is aligned with our higher goals. Our opportunities become so much bigger, brighter, and more beautiful when we let go of toxic and limiting beliefs.
When we could spend as much time and effort caring about the wellbeing of people at work as we do the security of our systems and data, we would experience more positive and healthy outcomes. This era is about breaking free from our own unnecessary constraints and waking up to what is possible. Imagine being in a wild experiment.
What if we choose to listen to our intuition and reason instead of what others tell us is important? As architects, creators and pioneers we have the choice to free ourselves from the residual industrial paradigms and chart a new journey for business and humanity.
In the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, “One thing about pioneers that you don’t hear mentioned is that they are invariably, by their nature, mess-makers.”
What happens when we face our biggest fears head on, so that we can do the work we are meant to do?