We Can Change... starting now
A quick look at my new course for changemakers like you
Ok everybody, we’re doing this!
Registration is open for Agents of Radiant Change (ARC), and I’m starting to talk about it on LinkedIn. I’ll share more over there (and less here) in the weeks ahead, so I invite you to:
Connect with me if you haven’t already—let me know you’re a subscriber and I’ll follow you right back 😘
Like and/or comment on my ARC posts to help them get out to your network
Share what resonates with you with another changemaker you know
And of course, I’d love for you to consider joining ARC’s first cohort—you can find details like dates and (pilot) pricing here. To that end, here’s an overview of how ARC is coming together…
Everyone has some form of “change agent” in their job description. Maybe you’re responsible for driving growth or innovation. Maybe you’re bringing a new strategic direction. Maybe you’re trying to make your workplace more inclusive, more sustainable, more human. The point is, not one of us serves a role dedicated to maintaining the status quo.
But are we effective in how we engage with change? Are we inspiring and motivating those around us, or frustrating and immobilizing them? Are we fueled by a creative vision for meaningful transformation, or a reactive bias for action? Are we pausing to assess how it’s going, and adjusting accordingly? Are we really doing good, or inadvertently causing more harm? And perhaps most importantly, is this work renewing or exhausting our personal and organizational resources?
A key factor in what makes change so hard is pictured here: our expectations of change. We think it’s a linear process, easily mapped by a smart enough plan, and that, executed well, it should be simple and obvious for others to enthusiastically embrace.
I love showing this how we think change happens chart to my fellow change practitioners. They immediately start giggling. They know, as I have learned many times over that this is never—and I mean never ever—how it goes.
This chart is slightly more accurate, though still a massive simplification. It’s a take on the classic change curve, which you may have seen before in other forms (e.g. the five stages of grief).
You see the initial high of having an idea, a vision for change, of mobilizing around it, and then we inevitably and invariably crash when we confront the complexity of and resistance to the change we’re seeking. Then it’s a matter of continuously leaning on our own curiosity, creativity and resilience to keep going and to keep bringing others along with us.
In ARC, this curve will be our map for our six weeks together. As an ARC participant, you’ll be invited to name a change that you are leading in your work or in your world. And in a supportive cohort of fellow changemakers, you will systematically apply 10 Truths of Radiant Change to this particular change. Each week we’ll explore two of these 10 Truths, with plenty of time for personal reflection, rich discussion and meaningful steps forward along the curve.
Let’s go through the 10 Truths, which are organized into three core principles of Radiant Change.
The first of those principles is We Can Change (sound familiar? 😉). Even as we recognize that change is inevitable in this life, we must also find our way to believing that change is possible. There’s a juicy paradox between these two that we’ll explore in Week 1. In Week 2, we’ll look at why change is always complex—even changes that seem simple and straightforward to us.
Week 2 also brings us into the second core principle: We are Human. It’s our humanity that makes change a challenge… and makes it possible. So we’ll talk about how change is uncomfortable, and how understanding the neuroscience of resistance can help us “surf the curve,” as I like to say. Then in Week 3 we’ll look at two more of our very human tendencies—disrupting our us vs. them narratives because change is not a fight and rising out of perpetual firefighting mode because change is not a fix.
In Weeks 4 and 5 we’ll dig into our third core principle: We Must Play. This is where our work becomes not only more effective and efficient, but also more enjoyable. We’ll look directly at why change is momentum (not mandate) and how change is co-created (not controlled). Finally, we commit to continuous testing and learning, because change is iterative. And because change is never ending, we know to focus on long-term impact and to celebrate progress every step of the way.
In Week 6, we’ll do just that, reflecting on our time together, recognizing the progress we’ve made and integrating our insights to inform how we move forward from here.
That’s how ARC works. It’s hands-on and immersive, making the conceptual concrete. It’s solidly structured with weekly cohort sessions, a personal coaching session and the ARC Playbook, but also fully tailored to the specific shift you’re seeking.
Come join us. Leading change can be lonely work. It’s easy to feel you’re the only one, that you’re pushing a boulder uphill day after day, all on your own. But you’re not alone. I’m here with you. And so are many, many more agents of change in organizations, institutions and communities around the world.
We can be powerful and joyful agents of change, particularly if we are working—and playing—together.