Connect the Dots

There’s a great moment in the movie “Contact” when Jodie Foster’s character - and pretty much every scientist and engineer on the planet - is trying to figure out how to read the design plans for an interstellar transportation device that has been broadcast to earth by an alien species.

Attempting to read the plans in a linear manner - in the same way we would read any text - proves impossible. The images and symbols simply don’t line up using the tried and true approach. Finally, Foster is tipped off that the “documents” themselves are multi-dimensional forms and once connected on three sides they become usable. This changes everything.

I had an insight recently that feels a lot like that.

My work with #leaders and #teams is centered on three interconnected principles, the application of which is the best “equipment” for building #resilience and #adaptability that I have learned to apply. But for too long I thought of it too narrowly, stuck in the rut of the “tried and true” thinking described above.

These principles are the bedrock of my work, the centerpiece of every conversation:

1.???All #change starts within. That is, we must develop a deep self-awareness, a fully literate self-understanding if we are to be sufficiently rooted to withstand the winds of change. This self-awareness creates an extraordinary byproduct known as humility. And only with #humility can we begin to understand the depth to which others can be known. That commitment, fueled by curiosity, leads directly to…

2.???Deeper #connection and stronger #relationships. A single rooted tree does not make a forest. It is a collection of rooted trees, co-mingling their roots beneath the surface that makes a forest, an ecosystem within which shelter can be found, diversity can flourish, and possibility can emerge.

3.???From that place of deep personal awareness and authentic connection we become more courageous and capable in the face of the unexpected and the unknown. We know we must keep learning and exploring if we are going to survive and even thrive in the face of change. We also know that it’s far easier to peer into the unknown or to stand at the base of the mountain, when we’re inextricably linked to others, our fears and doubts made tolerable by our collective presence and encouragement.

But then what?

And here’s the insight, something I once perceived as too simple to be true: what happens after the shared experience of navigating the unknown, is that we apply our hard-won learning and connect these three principles again. And again. And again.

What I learn about myself on the rocky ascent becomes the next layer of my self-awareness.

What we learn about one another through that shared experience becomes the next layer of trust in our relationship.

And it is that accumulation, that layering of self and relational knowledge, that equips us to courageously ask the inevitable question: where’s the next mountain, the next challenge, the next opportunity to express the strength of our shared learning?

We connect the dots again. And now, a little bit more faithful, a little bit more thoughtful and a little bit more prepared, we go even further.

To accumulate our #learning. To keep moving forward together. This is everything.

?

DAVID?BERRY?is the author of More Human Than Otherwise: Living & Leading with Humility. He speaks and?writes about the complexity and possibility of leading in a changing world.