Calling All #ChangeAgents

Positive #ChangeAgents are leaders who “illuminate the way” and manage friction of stepping outside the status quo for benevolent ends. Anyone can be a change agent, you do not have to wait to receive formal authority to do so. Given this definition, do you consider yourself a positive #ChangeAgent?

Whether you do or do not (yet) consider yourself one, I'd like to ask you to reflect on a few key questions:

Have you ever had a circumstance in which you felt like people were claiming rules existed that didn't really exist? Or that people were hiding being misinterpretations of rules to justify non-benevolent, unhelpful behaviors?

If so, what did you do to break through those made-up or misinterpreted rules? What did you do as a positive #ChangeAgent -- a to chart a better, more constructive path?

#ChangeAgents as Clear-Headed Thinkers in the Midst of Stress

Earlier this week a stove was in the process of being delivered to our kitchen. The delivery truck had pulled up as close as it could to our driveway and the deliverymen were in the process of carrying the stove up our stairs -- when a tow truck showed up and started the process of preparing to tow the delivery truck away.

The deliverymen couldn't drop the stove they were carrying so I ran to the tow truck and asked what the tow truck people thought they were doing?

The towers replied that they were required to tow any parked vehicle not showing a sticker that they were with the homeowner's association where we live. I replied this was a commercial delivery van, delivering a stove to our house and that we were homeowners.

The would-be towers said that didn't matter -- that they were required to tow any parked vehicle not showing a sticker that they were with the homeowner's association where we live. This sounded suspect to me, so I asked if anyone had called them -- they said no. I asked why they were doing this, they claimed they were just "patrolling the area". I replied I could go grab our homeowners sticker for the truck if that would suffice.

Then the two tow truck individuals pivoted and said it would be $50 to release the truck since they had already started. I began to realize they might be doing this all of this to take advantage of the deliverymen, who had I not rushed downstairs and said I was a member of the homeowner's association, might not have been able to negotiate with the two towers unless they paid them money.

Rather than responding with stress, I calmly asked the tower why did we need to pay $50? They claimed it was a regulation of the county where we lived.

So I called their bluff and called the non-emergency number for the county police -- indicating it was a non-emergency however I needed their help in clarifying the situation. The police were kind enough to relay it was not their regulation and since we lived in homeowner's association, any towing company had to work under the purview of the association manager.

When I shared this with the towers that their $50 was not a regulation of the county, they then pivoted and claimed they were contracted by the association to tow all vehicles. I knew that this was bogus because how else would people move into and out of our area, the driveways were way to short for moving vans.

So again I called their bluff and called the homeowner association's manager, who fortunately was reachable and explained the situation. He asked to speak to the towers and about five minutes later the two towers released the delivery van and drove away.

#ChangeAgents Needed Now More Than Ever

This whole situation made me realize we all probably observe several instances during the day where people claim organizational rules exist that don't really -- or that their interpretation is incorrect.

I am not a lawyer, however I do have experience navigating though and around both digital systems and large systems of humans working together. Polite persistence is helpful, as is a strong desire to find the truth -- truth either in how a digital system operators or a large human system does.

Returning to my earlier proposition that positive #ChangeAgents are leaders who “illuminate the way” and manage friction of stepping outside the status quo for benevolent ends -- the benevolence emphasis truly matters. In the world there may be people to hide behind, misuse, or confuse the rules of systems for their own self-interested ends -- which is why we need positive #ChangeAgents willing to do the opposite by stepping in front of, lifting up, and going beyond the rules of systems for the benevolent benefit of others beyond themselves.

Our world needs positive #ChangeAgents now more than ever.

Which is why this October 23-25 at the Executive Leadership Conference, we're calling on all positive #ChangeAgents to make their pitch as to what can be done "differently and better" in 2017 to improve public service. We previously held a competition for a diversity of thought leaders across public service to propose topics for one of two speaking non-partisan opportunities:

1. "Voices of Change": as a #ChangeAgent, give a 12-minute talk on what's *already* working in public service and could be scaled to other departments and agencies in 2017. 8 minutes of Q&A will follow. The audience will vote on the best talks to brief the Office of Management and Budget and the next Administration in 2017.

2. "Perfect Pitch": as a group of 3-5 #ChangeAgents, give a 12-minute pitch to a panel of distinguished judges on an idea to deliver results differently and better in 2017. 8 minutes of Q&A will follow. The audience will vote on the best pitches to brief the Office of Management and Budget and the next Administration in 2017.

I should emphasize that we wanted a diversity of ideas focused on the non-partisan work associated with running the nation and delivering results differently and better to the public.

The good news is we now have nine Voices of Change talks scheduled and nine Perfect Pitches scheduled -- and follow this space as I hope to update the finalized list in the next two weeks, plus later share with you via LinkedIn and other social media what these #ChangeAgent pitches are.

More importantly, I hope that this model of empowering individuals to provide "Voices of Change" and "Perfect Pitches" for what can be done differently and better in public service -- which includes all of us as members of the public, private sector partners, and government professionals -- expands beyond just the Executive Leadership Conference.

Our world needs positive #ChangeAgents now more than ever, and this begins with a diversity of individuals sharing how they propose to “illuminate the way” and manage friction of stepping outside the status quo for benevolent ends.

Here's to seeing what networks of positive #ChangeAgents can do together.