Faith and Agility (Excerpt from the book, The Five Insights)
As nature shows us time and again, change isn’t optional, but it is natural. Enduring leaders understand that things change; as a matter of fact, they rely on that knowledge. They have faith that things will change, and they lead based on that premise. Faith is a deep understanding and a trust that everything changes, always. Enduring leaders also recognize that it is hard to predict, so they rely on their ability to be agile and responsive in the face of it.
What’s more, change isn’t linear, so our response to it can’t be, either. At times, change requires us to reduce a complicated problem into core elements that can be solved. Other times, change cannot be reduced—it’s too complex to be simplified—and we have to learn to accept its complexity. Faith and Agility describes the ability to lead through change while being comfortable with complexity, chaos and non-linear processes.
Perhaps more than any other insight, Faith and Agility tests our emotional stability. Change and the chaos it brings trigger emotional responses in us that make it even harder for us to respond optimally. Among these triggers, our own, primal need to feel in control of our environment, our destiny and our work exerts itself most strongly. Change can be resisted, but it can’t be avoided. Enduring leaders thrive in change instead of avoiding it or trying to plan around it. They are able to do so because they have faith that change is natural, needed and ordinary.
The practices that help leaders develop this insight don’t involve analytical genius, improved problem solving ability, or an intimate knowledge of chaos theory, although these skills help. Instead, the practices that assist leaders in developing this insight involve learning to understand the universal processes of change, dealing with our own need for control (and the lack thereof) and learning to lead people through change instead of denying it.
