Not waving, but drowning...

Have you ever woken up in a cold sweat wondering what on earth you are doing at work, and why? Have you ever thought how good it would be to win the lottery, if only to stick a finger up at your boss, his boss, her boss, or indeed the entire company?

Have you ever wondered if you will ever get the people in your organisation or team to share their ideas, their creativity, to give more of themselves, to communicate more openly, to be more responsible?

And have you ever stopped to think that they might be asking the same questions about you?

Does your real life stop at the office door or factory gate, to be replaced by anxiety, boredom, even fear for the next eight hours or so until you get out? And if not yours, what about your staff? How many of your people can truly say that their working life is a joyous expression of who they are, and live complete and seamless lives between home and work?

Do you?

More and more people are asking themselves these questions. As our working lives get faster, more complicated, more demanding, what are we looking for in our work? What makes the difference between a boring job and an interesting one, between tedious work and excitement,between life-numbing grind and a fulfilling and enjoyable working life?

The answer is, you make the difference. As leader, manager, coach, colleague, team member: whatever you do and wherever you do it, it is your attitude, your sense of purpose and your sense of self that will set the scene - the context - from which a powerful future will emerge.

We are all leaders, coaches, colleagues, and team members

- unless you are a total recluse, your every interaction with another person is an opportunity for personal leadership, coaching, and relationship building. There has never been a more important or appropriate time to express these personal qualities in organisations.

Some people will continue to daydream, hope that things will turn out more to their own liking, and be disappointed every Saturday evening when yet again they have lost the lottery.

While others will move powerfully forward regardless of their circumstances to make things happen around them, consistent with their vision. These people are never disappointed, always engaged. They know that they have already won the lottery. They have a strong sense of purpose, know themselves, and live into each moment of their lives. They are the Dreamers of the Day. They are, indeed, dangerous people - they make things happen, they live life to the full - and they are to be found in every factory, every office, every home, waiting for their potential to be freed.

We all of us live with a certain view of the world that is unique to each of us. This is a comfortable and reliable reality - full of solid objects, predictable universal laws (you're always in the wrong queue at the Post Office, you only spill ketchup on expensive clothes, etc.), and seemingly immutable truths - the hands on a clock move to the right; night follows day; the Earth is round (most people agree on that).

It is also the case that new scientific theory suggests that there isn't, in fact, a solid world 'out there' at all. As humans, we can never access the 'one true reality', as reality is interpreted differently by each of us. We can only access our personal interpretation of reality - what we individually think is so. Indeed, no one is really sure where 'out there' stops and 'in here' starts.

The world exists for each of us only in through our relationship with it.

The bottom line is that we are, each of us, the author of our own life. The only thing that stops us from being outstanding is our own story, the one we have been writing about ourselves since we can first remember failing, falling, fouling up. The question is, are we committed to continuing the story, or inventing a totally new story-line, called Who I Can Be.

The more we seek to learn about and live in this emergent world, the more we begin to see the world as a network of interrelated processes, webs of complex relationships of which you and I are an integral part.

This prison, as Einstein calls is, is a product of our thinking and the language we each use to describe our thoughts - how we see the world. We are each so used to experiencing the world and reacting to it in our own particular way that we no longer see the wood for the trees. The choices we make, seemingly so freely, are for the most part dictated by deep-seated patterns, opinions and stories about ourselves, the world and our particular place in it. Our choices then become very limited, and so therefore is the action available to us.

Our true source of freedom lies in these choices. Whilst some people build psychological sandcastles to hold back the sea of life that looks ever threatening (and we all know what happens to sandcastles), Dreamers of the Day are surfing.

Life surfing in this regard has certain characteristics:

• waves are unpredictable always go for a wave that pushes you to your limit
• you will get wet (that isn't good or bad, just wet - this is a full immersion activity)
• you can't be half-hearted on a surf board - it's total commitment or nothing
• it requires a lot of practice
• glittering prizes may not come your way - do it for the love of it
• take risks - that's half the fun (but avoid suicidal behaviour)
• there are a few basic rules - know them and stick to them

Translate this metaphor into organisational terms. When people go to work, they are still alive, believe it or not, and bring an infinite number of worlds, of new possibilities, with them. Think of the power and creativity that people would bring to their work if they were able to think of themselves surfing through their lives and have work as a committed expression of that.

Think of working in a team where everyone was upfront and honest; where people genuinely cared for and helped each other; and were mutually committed to achieving their goal. Contrast that to the team in which people poke fun at the boss (and each other behind their backs) and hear 'failure' every time a learning opportunity comes along.

Imagine an organisation where it was 'all for one and one for all' - a real 'we can' culture - rather than 'all for me and stuff the rest' - a 'you must be joking' culture.

Think of the organisation that arranged itself around processes that allowed for committed 'surfing' rather than one arranged around functions to be controlled, procedures to be managed, and people to be told what to do. Which organisation out of these two would you rather spend half your life in?
Not Waving …

Ultimately, successful organisational change is about individuals pursuing their own dreams, where those dreams are congruent with the organisation's objectives and values. This has always been the case, but the lid of carrot and stick/command and control has always kept the pot from boiling over.

Now, the rules of the organisational game are changing fast. People are subservient no longer, expectations in the workplace are high, individuals seek meaning and a sense of purpose in their work.

As a manager, leader or coach, ask yourself these questions:

• What do I want from my life, and what will success look/sound/feel like?
• What is really important to me?
• What am I prepared to give up to achieve my personal and work-life goals?
• Is my work congruent with my personal values, and if not, what am I prepared to do about it?
• Do I take 100% responsibility for everything I do?
• Am I true to my beliefs, whatever it takes?
• Do I add value to everything I do at work, and for everyone I work with and for?

The answers to these questions may determine the kind of surfboard you currently have, and your present level of surfing competency. For those people who are ready to learn, embrace challenge for themselves and others, and to show up boldly, for these people the future is sparkling with possibility.

Others, who are stuck with personal barriers and historical patterns of thinking, will find the emerging future threatening and disorienting, and in reaction will disengage - inevitably, the worst thing they could do.

As leaders and coaches, we must develop the conversations that enable all people to make the best choices available to them to lead powerful and contributory lives.

Out there, in here, wherever they are surfing, there will be many people having fun, speaking the future, and waving. But others, for sure, will be drowning.

Copyright Sheridan Maguire 2002