Current e-Journal
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July 30, 2024
Getting Past What’s Stopping You
In this week’s Systems Change Newsletter…
- Invitations & Announcements
- Catalytic Thinking Exercise: Getting Past What’s Stopping You
- Resources to Further Your Practice
Invitations & Announcements:
Hiring Practices that Bring Out the Best in Everyone Involved
Creating the Future’s Integrity Body (aka our board) has spent much of this year exploring hiring practices through the powerful lens of Catalytic Thinking. While we take a break during July and August, you can find summaries of our discussions at this link. If you are considering hiring new team members, we know these discussions will help you create a process that will bring out the best in everyone involved. Read it all here…
Catalytic Thinking Exercise:
Getting Past What's Stopping You
A few weeks ago, we came upon an article Hildy wrote 10 years ago for Huffington Post – a piece about “We can’t until” syndrome.
Those of us working for a more just world hear that refrain all the time.
- The time isn’t right
- We don’t have the money / people / connections
- We’re just a small organization
- We can’t tackle those big societal problems because…
We all do this about something in our lives. It may not be tackling climate change or homelessness; it may be about taking the vacation of a lifetime. Or getting in better shape.
The common theme is this:
- There is something we really want.
- We have a million reasons why we can’t go for it right now.
Those million reasons are all rooted in our assumptions and beliefs – the thinking that informs our actions (or lack thereof). Those assumptions may stem from fear, or scarcity thinking, or politics (organizational, family), or any number of factors.
Regardless of the cause, obstacles are almost always in our own minds. And we know that because what might be an insurmountable obstacle to one person is simply a blip on the radar to someone else.
Whatever the trigger, there is a path beyond the barriers our minds create. Not surprisingly, it all has to do with the questions our assumptions are answering. Which means we can ask ourselves different questions!
Try this
Write down that thing you would love to do. Now write down the reasons you think you can’t go for it.
As a child crisis nursery, we would love to tackle the issue of child homelessness in our community. Unfortunately, we can’t tackle that issue because…
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- Our board will balk, telling us to stick to our core mission.
- We don’t have funding for that.
- We don’t have a plan – it’s all so new to us.
- Etc.
Be clear about your reasons. List them all.
Then for each of those reasons for not doing what you really want to do, ask…
What would need to be in place for that "obstacle"
to no longer be an obstacle?
The board:
What would your board need to know, to be supportive? What would they need to understand? What would they need to feel, or be assured of?
The funding:
What would funders and donors need to know, in order to support that work? What would they need to believe? What would they need to understand?
The plan:
What would you need to know, in order to have a plan? What would you need to have? What would you need to be assured of?
What these questions make clear is that the things that stop us are almost always mental constructs – things we believe are true, but might just be our beliefs.
Obstacles are only obstacles because we think they are obstacles. Because as Hildy notes in The Pollyanna Principles, unless something is physically impossible, it is possible.
Obstacles are only obstacles because we think of them as obstacles.
When you stop seeing “obstacles” and “stumbling blocks” and “challenges,” and you start seeing only unmet conditions for success – things that need to happen so that you can accomplish your goals – you are freeing yourself from chains that you, yourself, have created.
That is the reason the first tenet of Catalytic Thinking is this: Our power to create results lies in our power to create favorable cause-and-effect conditions towards our dreams.
So jot down that thing you really want to do. And figure out what needs to be in place for that dream to be reality.
Resources to Further Your Practice:
- WATCH: To get beyond obstacles, stop talking about obstacles. Watch here…
- LEARN: If you want your organization’s plans to actually accomplish what you dream is possible, here is a great place to start…
- WATCH: This oldie-but-goodie TED talk shows the difference one person can make Watch here…
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