In working to build capabilities across several cultures and business lines, I find that how one approaches change is important. There are no immediate shortcuts. Individuals are not effective participants in change if they do not understand. Communities do not embrace change unless there is a consensus. To let others embrace and understand takes time. It also takes a willingness to accept the fact that they might refuse.
I grew up in a culture that said information and data was the critical aspect to understanding. My farther took a different tack. While information was important, experience was a higher priority. Learning was participatory. At its heart, education was about doing. When you knew, you held the facts within and the ability to act without. The measurement could be found in your quick response to questions (tests). It could also be seen in your willingness to take on challenges that used knowledge as a foundation while requiring more.
For much of my life, communities were bullied and mandated to comply with change. Autocratic rule is quick. I have never found it to last. In time, people and groups revert to what they hold to be true in their hearts. You may bend their direction. Rarely will you change it. Change is something that a community must do for itself.
In both it is important to understand what is at the core of the new. If new actions rest on this core, change is coming. The opposite is equally true. One spiritual writer noted that, “everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!” (1 John 4.3) It was a harsh assessment, but the building block was missing.
Today begins with compassion, community, and commitment. There will be challenges. Others will wonder why and I owe each a dialogue. The primary focus will be embracing the core in every action and word. It is a quest worth pursuing, for others and for myself.
