Recently I’ve been watching a film called Long Way Down; the follow-up to the documentary film A Long Way Round. The premise  is that you take a couple of well (or well enough) healed individuals, in this case actor Ewan McGreggor and friend Charlie Boorman, put them on motorbikes and follow them as they circumnavigate the globe.

Paraphrasing Ewan, “this is the type of adventure every boy dreams about but few get the opportunity to do.”

We all have dreams, adventures and aspirations that we’ve held onto for years now. Some of these may go all the way back to our childhood. While I believe that you can accomplish anything you put your mind to I understand that often times the idea of the adventure is more important than the adventure itself.

My Little Adventures

The aforementioned films get my blood pumping to do a long adventure motorcycle ride. At the moment however I am not in a position to make that happen. After several days being removed from the film I realize that, while I would like to make such an adventure happen immediately, it really is not at the top of my list of priorities.

I’m sure this is true for many people. Instead I satisfy some small cravings by finding small adventures that can be accomplished quickly. To satisfy this small craving my small adventure was to forgo driving on the streets that carry me effortlessly to my destination and instead hop onto the gravel service road next to the train tracks.

In the heart of a city of nearly 1.5 million residents I find myself surrounded by trees and wildlife with not another soul around. My motorbike slides into ruts, pushes me back and forth as it fights for footing on the large loose gravel. This ride is an adventure, a little adventure.

I take these little adventures as a way of reminding myself of my place in the world and as a way of re-opening my mind to new possibilities.

Daily Little Adventures

On a day-to-day basis I find excuses to break out of my routine, this small act alone provides for a very little adventure but one that is crucial to keeping me engaged in my work.

The act of reaching out to someone within your organization, or an organization that you admire is another little adventure – one I highly recommend. For me an adventure is anything that takes you out of your comfort zone, challenges you enough to highten your awareness and quicken your pulse a bit. This physical change causes a mental change that sharpens our focus while opening our minds to previously unseen possibility.

“We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character” – Henry David Thoreau

What do you do to create little adventures and how do they make you feel?

This week I had a couple of opportunities to sit down with friends, eat and share conversation. Every week we should find time for this because the act of friendship and conversation leaves its participants with more than they have given. I walked away from all of these opportunities feeling more energized than I was when I arrived.

One gathering left me reminded of how little we all need to live a happy and full life, just interesting experiences; another reminded me that change (of location, of path, of anything) occurs as much internally as it does externally.

At one of these meetings my friend (and mentor – although she may not realize that) and I discussed the idea of focus. Specifically, we discussed that there doesn’t need to be a single focus to the work that makes up a career, or a life.

Focus on Tasks

Specific tasks require focus. For example, if you are charged with building a house then your task at hand is to build that house. You must focus on building that house. But what about the bigger picture? If you build a house this month does that mean that you shouldn’t build a piece of fine furniture the next month? Or maybe you can work on both in parallel.

Focus on tasks is important for making progress on specific projects but allowing ourselves to un-focus, to open up to other options, is what allows our mind to expand and discover new possibilities. That is where creativity and innovation come from.

Un-Focused

Growing up I was prompted to try as many different activities as possible. Likewise, in primary school we are all expected to take a wide variety of classes as a way of getting a “well rounded” education. I found the mixture to be inspiring and to leave me better prepared to embrace change.

Within the organization you work for do you find yourself or your co-workers becoming complacent or bored? When change is necessary does it come at the high price of alienating people who are so locked into the systems that have been in place for years that they just don’t feel they can change?

Un-focused work environments can alleviate those issues.

You see, people thrive on change even when they resist it. The mere thought of change quickens the pulse and taps into the primal instinct for survival. Like fight or flight this impulse causes us to either try and impede the change or to gain advantage over the change.

Providing an environment that physically excites people engages them. Even though you have un-focused across the broad view of the organization; at the task level these people will become much more engaged and focused.

A Journey

Life is a journey, as the saying goes. When considering the happiest and most pleasantly exciting times in our lives it is when things veered off course a bit but were all the more rewarding because of it. What if this were the constant state of how you lived your life? Would you rather spend days driving on a straight, unbending superhighway getting to the end quickly or would you rather let your path be one that winds and bends through forests, small towns and dusty country lanes?

Franklin University is hosting a Change Leadership Symposium on Thursday October 15, 2009 from 11:30-5:00 on the 2nd Floor of Philips Hall (Main & Grant) in downtown Columbus Ohio.

I’m working with the organizers now to determine if there is a good fit for me to lead one of the discussions. I’ll keep you posted in regards to that. Either way I am registered and excited for this important event to happen. I hope to see you there!

[Full information available here and LinkedIn page here]

Change Leadership on the path to Democratic Governance

Initially, the focus for this symposium started as individual topics at the frontier of change leadership. These topics included complexity science as a framework for understanding change, interconnection of change at different scale (personal, organizational, and societal), building community, and managing a portfolio of change. However, as the topics were evaluated it became clear there was a common theme involving the continuing movement into a knowledge era and how individuals choose to structure their relationships as they organize with others.

Within this shift, “Democratic Governance” is starting to surface as an approach to community governance. This approach seeks to involve more stakeholders in the decision-making process and works to overcome conflicts by addressing root causes. Yet, while Democratic Governance normally involves local governing bodies, the same issues are involved in empowering teams and collaboration among organizational stakeholders with different goals.

Therefore, this symposium will examine a number of issues within the framework of the greater change processes underway today. It will seek to build a holistic understanding that incorporates leading edge thinking about change processes. Attendees are expected to come from a range of backgrounds with expertise in different aspects of organizational change and thereby share their knowledge within the framework of building a sustainable model of Democratic Governance.

Adopting new approaches for organizing diverse groups of people, the symposium is designed to be different from traditional conferences and workshops. Collectively, attendees will experience techniques for building a sense of community around common interests and move to deeper levels of learning. Attendees will be encouraged to be active participants by investigating the numerous issues that arise as you scale from small groups with single focus into larger groups bringing conflicting agendas to the table. It is these larger issues that are expected to dominate the symposium dialogue.

Registration fee: $20 includes lunch, afternoon refreshments, and symposium supplies. Contact Dr. Ross Wirth at wirthr@franklin.edu or 614-947-6128 for more information. Profiles of those attending are being organized at http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1865279/