I’m sitting with a guy today over breakfast and we are discussing some of the 360 degree feedback from his work associates. I can hear the inner struggle of owning the condition of what we are when we are conscious of our wholeness - our being both good and bad. Eastern thought uses the word “co-emergence” to explain the idea that at any one time both good and bad is present. . .the question is how unconditionally present are we with our saintly AND sordid ways? Augustine’s Soliloquies suggests that true recollection (the re-collecting of) leads us always to confession. It is only when we embrace not just the wholeness of our historic experience, but also when we see what we have done with this experience, do we truly choose ourselves and engage life with a threefold presence of repentance, renewal, and offering.

To accept ourselves seems to require that we look beyond the light we so freely offer others and forage into the shadows, guilt, and sins and thus to the truth of “Who?” and “What?” we have been. To be with another in ways that are transformational to each, asks that the relationship emerges from the truth of our personal and collective stories where an honest rendering of both light and dark is accepted with repentance. . .a repentance that opens to the inner life of things that link us all. From my experience, this place that moves us well beyond being transactional, is in itself neither religious nor redemptive but an honesty that takes us to something even beyond ourselves.

Worthy leaders of great impact do not have the self, or its betterment as the ultimate goal, but rather, what is revealed in and through the experiences of our lives. There is a consciousness that can be experienced with others that expands beyond our self-interest. The way to leading well within corporations, schools, churches or homes necessitates a personal and shared repentance that tunes us into the collective truths of what we have in common. This presence opens us to renewal and to offering what is good as it relates to both the situation and to others.

My early morning leader has a choice. . .as do each of us. . . .

“The most visible creators I know of are those artists whose medium is life itself, the ones who express the inexpressible - without a brush, hammer, clay, or guitar. They neither paint not sculpt - their medium is being. Whatever their presence touches has increased life. They see and don’t have to draw. They are artists of being alive.” -J. Stone

As Americans, we are absolutely addicted to break through anything. The notion of kaizen or 2% improvement is something that we just as soon let someone else be managed by. Flat out, what we’re looking for, is leap frog transformation. But as I work with leaders, increasingly what I’m seeing is a fierce commitment to acting small, starting small, breaking into small teams of four to seven people, to embrace and practice rapid fire iterative revolution. Now don’t get me wrong, they are not calling it that, but regardless, what they’re doing is revolutionary.

This is counter to the typical approach of “ready,” “aim,” “aim!” You know what I mean, we are always getting ready, we are always seeming to be aiming, and my experience is break through innovation (some call it disruptive change) demands the marketization of our generative ideas. Put it out on the table! Get it into the hands of end users! Let the customer/client handle the product, play with the beta, become a collaborative partner in building the next best mousetrap, see what those closest to us think. . .I mean real transparent honesty.

What I’m hearing in the trenches…places where we spend the majority of our days/can we say “life…” is that we need to face it, we’ve been guessing wrong about the future most of the time. Whether it’s Harry Warner, founder of Warner Bros. studio, saying “who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” commenting on talking movies or, Thomas Watson, former chairman of IBM, state “I think there is a world market for about five computers,” and present-day versions that pushback against the 80’s notion of high tech, high touch (you know. . .the more high tech the greater the demand will be for high human touch) when we look at the effect of Face Book in kids spending hours interacting with other individuals from anywhere in the world building what they call community…and trying to guess about what will be in the future, it’s just that, a GUESS. So what are we to do but embrace the brilliance of multiple small starts. Experiment! Target small victories! Orient toward small markets! Unleash unbridled passion to systematically knockoff present profitable products and services to purposefully create the demand for “next.” Hey! Let’s not forget to contextualize this in our personal lives. We don’t have to shave off 40 pounds today, finish the degree next week, or “save” the relationship in one conversation. Rapid fire/iterative progression! Just get it out and begin to practice multiple small starts. The opportunity is CONSTANT!