What happens when a surgeon needs surgery? They must trust the process they deeply believe in and give their life in the hands of another surgeon. Despite their expertise, experience, and qualifications, a surgeon won’t be able to perform surgery on themselves. They need another surgeon even if they know exactly what to do. This allows a shift in position and perspective for the surgeon. A shift in position and perspective makes space for empathy and lessons to surface to the top that otherwise have been operating assumptions. Being placed in the shoes of those that you are usually helping brings a perspective that can only be learned in that position.
While we are not surgeons at The Civic Canopy, we have recently emerged from a journey that positions us to see the perspective of those we work with and work for. Over the past year we navigated “leadership emergence”—a name that we gave to a journey for finding our way toward equity and distributed leadership. This came after a year of being in the leadership disruption phase of this journey.
We often work with organizations and communities that are navigating systemic internal changes themselves. The following are perspectives and lessons that rose to the surface for us that we will carry more intentionally in community. These are not necessarily ideas that are new to us but are newly experienced internally.
Focus on the current step
There is nothing more paralyzing to a process than thinking about the work that is still to be done. When The Canopy embarked on the journey, our end goal was “equity.” To get to our current vision of equity and living in it, we made choices each day that took us closer to the goal. When it felt like we didn’t know what the result would be or what the end vision would look like, we focused on what we could do in the current moment that would support the future. Each present moment has an opportunity to build towards the larger vision. The larger vision can seem far away when it is viewed as something that is in the future. The future is an amplification of the present. When the future looks uncertain, when the goal feels too large, just focus on today.
Question Your Intentions
To ensure that the journey is worthwhile, it’s essential to question your intentions often. Why question them? When intentions are stated at the beginning of the journey, they are created by a different mindset than the mindset that emerges through the process. It’s essential to examine your intentions multiple times through the process to seek alignment. If an intention can withstand examination and if it can hold up to a process of scrutiny, then the intention for the journey is still true. If it cannot, it’s a sign for the organization to shift and realign with the truth that could be emerging that is different than the beginning. At the Canopy, our process started with “leadership disruption.” As we navigated our journey towards becoming a more equitable organization, we continued to reckon with the intention of our journey. Is what we wanted in the beginning still true today? Questioning your intentions are valuable checkpoints.
Embrace Complexity
A process is rarely a straight line. Change is rarely a straight line. A strategic process involving layers of systemic change in an organization is a complex web. Avoiding complexity is like avoiding sand when you go to the beach. Only when you embrace the sand at the beach, can you look up and enjoy the ocean on the horizon. At the Canopy, we experienced moments of complexity that made us question our intention, that made us challenge each other, and that made us invite conflict. In these moments, the process feels too sticky to embrace and it feels as if there could be an easier path. What we were reminded of this past year is that this complexity is the way. Complexity is the sand at the beach that we must let in so that we can enjoy the future that we are building towards.
It has been quite a year for our organization to emerge into our new way of operating that we have named “The Canopy Way.” It was a year of focusing on the current step, questioning our intentions, and embracing complexity that allowed us to see that the future we had been preparing is the one that we are living in. And having had to go through an internal change process will continue to guide us in our work in community with empathy and a greater understanding of perspectives from the other side. It’s what happens when a surgeon needs surgery. The process leaves them with renewed compassion.