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Men die of fright and live of confidence.
--Thoreau
After being hammered by negativity, bad news and gnawing doubt about the times, the country and most assuredly its leadership, hunger to recapture bygone solidity that was. It may only come about through a total overhaul of resolve and mental weaponry. Once, when Ross Perot and Roger Smith erstwhile chairman of General Motors were warring over their unholy alliance, Perot made a painfully prescient observation about GM which could be applied in present-day describing almost anything from government gone wrong to the state of our business.
Perot remarked, "At GM when there's a snake on the floor, the first reaction is to form a committee and commission researchers and consultants to study snakes. At EDS, when we saw a snake on the floor, we killed it." The Texas homily is just as relevant today, describing misfires in the country's values and moral restraint. Throughout history, it's at this point in the "cycle-of- belief" some sense a breakthrough. Have you ever had the feeling that you're embarking on the most important trip of your life? When this rare feeling hits us, all of a sudden we understand our purpose; the clarity of what we can achieve is overwhelming and we have the first indications (though not yet clearly scripted) of what must be done and how we'll do it. These breakthroughs are the opposite of a performance collapse and begin in subtle, nondescript nuances. You may reject this premise and file it away as misplaced optimism: something off a faded page from a Tony Robbins seminar. Common sense rides on the notion the current malaise with its vituperated rancor may actually expedite the killing of snakes, opening the door for the beginning of a breakthrough yet unseen, yet unfelt. And what are the leading indicators of a breakthrough ready to happen?
- The frustration of experiencing great sacrifice but seeing that sacrifice unrecognized.
- Deep loneliness overshadowed by a compelling desire to overcome adversity.
- A hunger to reclaim dignity for our industry and ourselves after rejecting failure.
- An unwavering resolve to put agenda aside, traded for core healing and collaboration.
- Reconstituted leadership that acknowledges it may have been wrong, accepting the need to reassess, re-commit, and reload.
When a breakthrough is just over the horizon there are typically signs to be read; some voice, some message that captures the work to be done. It could be anything from a sales triumph to a complete reordering of a company's leadership. It could be our own reappraisal of what's possible if we're willing to recognize it and move forward.
It's a beautiful moment when the darkness fades and slowly one by one, you and your organization are poised there on the knife's edge of something bigger, something better. Those who can't are left behind forever.
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