January, 2005 |
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 Feature Article: A Case for ReVolution What was your New Year’s resolution last year? How about the year before that? *waiting…* I knew it! It’s mid-January 2005 so I might just have caught you early enough to remember your 2005 resolution. What is it? Now for the real poke in the belly – what have you done about it? What tangible, persistent new thinking and actions have you engaged in moment to moment of the 24 expired days of this year to make it real?  For most people, the answer is, “not a lot.” Forgive me if I sound brash; sometimes it takes being involuntarily spun out of cozy ways to head in a new direction. Resolutions are rubbish. They’re pop culture’s attention deficit, sound bite surrogate for the real process of creating and sustaining something meaningful. Sure, a resolution is part of the process; an early part. But, it's far from the major part. The dictionary says a resolution is the act of determining an action or course of action, method or procedure. Great; we know what we’re going to do. Then what? The definition lacks something essential; it does not include ongoing action. Resolutions have the life-span of a desert flower. Why? Because they are just statements. I hear my Dad’s voice, “Talk is cheap. Make it happen.” A Mount Everest looms between resolutions and the persistent, often uncomfortable and unpopular steps required to make it manifest. ReVolutions, Man. That’s Where It’s At It’s not resolutions we ought to be toasting, but reVolutions. Let’s go for such personal and business innovation that we become Tasmanian Devils of progress and lasting enlightenment in our lives and organizations; as men and women, as leaders, followers, peers, fathers, daughters, women, sons, mothers, new hires, friends and seasoned executives. Resolutions…puh-leeze! Never in my years at EMC, the computer storage silver-back gorilla, did I hear the year start off with a resolution. And at Virgin – Richard Branson never uttered them. A program, a determined, focused, sustained application of resources to a set of specific and important objectives, yes. A resolution, never.
A reVolutionary creates reVolution - a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, especially one made suddenly and often accomplished by violence. And, when we’ve become so stuck we can’t stand it anymore, reVolution requires the overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established system by the people in the system. You corporate employees mired in pudding-thick politics, low morale, gossip and terrible communication listen up. You are as powerless as you think you are. I’m not advocating violence. Speaking poetically, isn’t a big change from the status quo often met with strong resistance in yourself and the people around you? Haven’t you felt sometimes in order to make a big upgrade to a situation you need to clean house? Like a gap opening between two of the earth’s plates, the shift can seem like a violent action. Think of when you left a relationship that was not working, even though the other person thought things were fine. Not So Fast I disagree with Unabridged Webster on the “suddenly” part. No reVolution ever came to full fruition suddenly. Not the American, Russian, or French ReVolutions. Not the social revolutions that resulted in equality for women or the one currently underway with the worldwide gay population. Not the abolition of slavery or the anti-apartheid reVolution in South Africa. ReVolutions may be characterized by sudden beginnings, though even that is debatable. A single catalytic act may seem to ignite a movement, but that movement was usually brewing for a long time. The American ReVolution, for example, did not start with the Stamp Tax. It began in thousands of anti-directional conversations, private frustrations and small counter-actions of dissent for years before the collective emotions coalesced and exploded as massive, visible and brazen resistance, as in the Boston Tea Party and full scale ReVolutionary War. The behind-the-scenes talking eventually incubated frustration into acted-out rejection of previously accepted duties and customs. In essence, the Colonists’ resolve led to substantial, continual and radical action over an extended period that created a new way of living. Talking must lead to action over time. Unfortunately, the way we do resolutions, they are mostly short-lived entertainment. Another big problem with our annual resolutions is in thinking about incremental change. They turn our attention to a slight modification to our behavior that is not substantially different from what we normally do. And because most resolutions have us thinking small, we rarely go further to specifying in what bold manner the new self-definition, attitude or behavior will be achieved. The Colonists did not say, “You can tax some imports, but give us a little leeway to have a small army of our own. Okay?” Clearly, they had a big vision. How often are your resolutions big visions? We also fail to really delve into big reasons why the upgrade or change is important. The whys of our choices hold the keys to emotional commitment, arguably the most important component in achieving big goals over time. Even if the intention is considered necessary, wonderfully positive and boldly outrageous, like becoming a truly masterful leader of people, permanently losing 50 pounds or being a better parent for your kids, only rarely have I seen them backed by well-conceived plans of action. Maybe because we’ve grown to need results fast, we raise our glasses, entertain each other and return to our ordinary lives. When you focus on small, incremental change, you tend to think in small timeframes, too. Yet, as anyone who has achieved substantial, permanent change in their lives can attest, the process often takes longer. (There is nothing wrong with it taking longer, by the way.) There will be tests of your fortitude, setbacks and outright losses, to tempt you to return to the comfort of yesterday. There will be big emotions to deal with. You’ll probably meet aspects of yourself you have yet to know intimately; fears, anger, hurt, confusion, excitement, unfocused thinking, resilience and courage, as examples. The allure of the popular annual resolution is that in stating it, a change has begun. That is true. But a match must quickly ignite something else if it’s to be useful in the long term. This is the way we need to reframe the New Year’s resolution.
How about a personal reVolution to finally replace your old governing beliefs and actions with a radical, self-edifying new order? How about some well planned, sustained action to give credibility to the talk and a real hope of success? How about marshalling not just some of your resources, but all of them? Money, creativity, intellect, collected knowledge and wisdom from experience, family and personal relationships, your professional relationships, spiritual teachers and beliefs, your coach. Is it time for that, or more of the same? What will you be resolving to do next New Year’s Day? |
