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Become a Change Agent:

Drive the positive change you want for yourself and the world!

Part One Understanding Change

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Be the change...

Review of Become a Change Agent: Drive the positive change you want for yourself and the world! Originally posted on Amazon.com on October 25
- by Occupy Texas

There are some very interesting positions posted here. Unfortunately, some are posted without reason or explanation. For example, he stated that our founding fathers believed, rightly, that democracy was undesirable. He offers no justification or explanation. What is desirable? A Plutocracy? An oligarchy? Who gets a voice? The rich? The college educated? Who decides who gets a voice, the ones with the largest guns? One aspect of our lack of direct democracy(The author errs in saying that direct democracy is undesirable, not in saying that we lack it.)is the Electoral College, which resulted in a candidate who had received fewer popular votes than his opponent being pronounced president by the Supreme Court. Thanks to that lack of direct democracy, the whole world paid and hundreds of thousands died. The people will make themselves heard, if not through the democratic process, then some other way.

Which brings me to the second disagreement I have with the author. He called the Occupy Movement disorganized and without goals. Like above, the author was partially correct. The Occupy Movement began as a reaction to what the people saw as grievous wrongs and the uprisings in the Middle East and Madison Wisconsin. The resulting anger caused Zucotti Park and the subsequent occupations of 1500 other towns and cities. As the author said, there was no planning or organization before the occupation, just a spontaneous expression of anger and passion.We went on that way for over nine months, but during that time, Occupy Philadelphia was organizing a national gathering in Philly, scheduled for Independence Day. At that gathering, the Visioning Statement was drafted. This was a list of our demands. The top ten demands, which are rank ordered, are (1)clean water, air and food, (2) free education for all, (3) no war, (4)a sustainable human society, (5) a culture of direct democracy, (6)free universal healthcare, (7)local food production, community gardens and permaculture agriculture, (8)economic equality, (9)localized economies and (10) a world where basic needs are met.

Cultivate an attitude of Gratitude

It is said that gratitude is the single most important ingredient in happiness. How can you be happy if you are not grateful for the people in your life and the things you have? This question may be a clue to the general state of malaise I have seen in my experiences with suburban America where "keeping up with the Joneses" and "getting ahead" are the expected behaviors.

Being grateful has lots of other positive side affects. Anger and fear cause your body to manufacture chemicals that have long-term negative consequences.

Cultivate an attitude of Gratitude. Learning to focus on what you are grateful for will allow you to face the inevitable challenges of life with a much more positive attitude. This will actually help you focus on solutions rather than expending effort assigning blame.

Author DL Hart wrote a great book on this subject!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006FRAVJ2

Wex Development Team

Tony Cota's Wex is a great community building project. I will find a way to get involed

http://tonycota.ning.com/

Case Study: Peter Diamandis

This is a case study of Dr. Peter Diamandis. I first came into contact with him as a supporter of the X-Prize (and I thought it was a HUGE, out of this world idea). Little did I know that this was a mere middle chapter in the life of this remarkable visionary.

Let’s examine his career using the principles of Becoming a Change Agent. The first thing to examine is his vision:

Humans should be a multiplanetary species. That is big and it is contagious. It is a clear statement of intention. It is a vision for his life as well as the planet!

The next step is to analyze his work in light of the Framework.

1.       Set Sail

By 1980 it was obvious the government’s approach to space exploration was too timid for the Diamandis vision. In fact, the United States’ last maned flight had taken place in 1976. As a college student, he created Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. 35 people showed up for the first meeting and it continues to spread.

In 1987 he and two colleagues founded the International Space University. It grew from a graduate-level summer program to have a permanent campus and 3,300 graduates today.

2.       Now – Waiting on government sponsored programs is waiting forever.  

Diamondis realized this in 1992 when the Administration made empty promises to return to the moon and Mars.

3.       The path to activating the vision and

4.       Taking steps along the way

Two things have always driven exploration, resources and tourism. So He took steps to leverage those activities into a human presence in space:

·         1992- Founds Zero Gravity, a for profit business that allows customers to experience weightlessness on parabolic airplane flights. Steven Hawking is his most famous customer.

·         1996- Announces the X-Prize, borrowing the idea of a contest in the same way that the Ortieg prize (won by Charles Lindbergh) jump-started the aviation industry.

·         2001-Space Adventures (a company he founded in 1998) arranges for Dennis Tito to visit the International Space Station

·         2004-Awards the $10 million Ansari X-Prize to Mojave Aerospace Ventures, who successfully completed the contest in their spacecraft SpaceShipOne. A total of $100 million was spent by 26 teams competing for the prize.

·         2005-Expands the X-Prize foundation to spur breakthrough work in other areas such as clean energy, education and health care

·         2008-Founds Singularity University, an intensive 10-week program in which students and faculty study emerging technologies to address “Humanity’s grand challenges”. To date, 24 companies have been spun off from these studies.

5. How do you read the map?

He wrote an alternative to Murphy’s Law called “Peter’s Laws” – If anything can go wrong, fix it. “No” means begin again one level higher. Do it by the book but be the author.

He has observed that small teams can accomplish amazing things with world-changing technology. The world’s biggest challenges are also the biggest market opportunities.

An era of unprecedented abundance is arriving. Today, a Maasai tribesman in Kenya has better mobile communications than President Reagan had in the White House. If it is a smart phone, it is better than President Clinton had. Their Google is exactly the same as Larry Page’s (a key executive at Google).

The key risk is risk aversion. There are no breakthroughs without risk. Society has moved from a stance of it is OK unless it is specifically illegal to it is wrong unless it is specifically permitted.

6. Keep it going

This year, Dr. Diamandis founded Planetary Resources, an asteroid mining company with backing from Larry Page, James Cameron and Ross Perot. The priority for the next 2-5 years is finding targets. The goal is to land robotic mining equipment on an asteroid in a little over 10 years.

Change Agent: Framework Steps 5 & 6

5. How do you read the map?

You will probably be creating new things and working with new ideas, so there is no road map. You are in undiscovered country. Here are a few tips for navigation.

Seek out others with similar visions and ask their advice. You will likely find allies and co-creators to collaborate with as you activate your vision.

Have I mentioned how important it is to share your vision with others? The key to success is that your vision must be contagious! The projects you choose should naturally gain followers. You in turn have a responsibility to those that follow you.  True leaders serve!

Focus on learning everything you can about those you serve. They will show you the way by their actions more than their words. People naturally want to support and encourage you. That support needs to be in the form of taking actions that are measurable.

Build data collection into your processes. Most web sites have analytics built in or available as a plug-in option. Save as much data as you can reasonably collect because you typically do not know what the questions will be in the future. Collecting the raw data (even when it initially seems pointless) allows you to have data to mine for the answers you do not even know how to ask today.

It is important to return to your vision and think about it often. That keeps you focused on the true point. Sometimes you are so busy innovating, iterating, pivoting and managing the Everyday that you lose track of what or where it is you were going in the first place. 

Sometimes quietly contemplating your vision allows you uncover refinements. Make sure you include time for reflection – maybe not daily but certainly weekly.

6. Keep it going!

You will be repeating steps 3, 4 and 5 a lot. You will be repeating the whole framework, too. This is natural in the process of validated learning. Write a plan to follow. Use a pencil and have a big eraser. This is the first step toward non-attachment. Plans need to evolve, boundaries change and the envelope gets pushed. It is what visionaries such as you do! When you accomplish the first chunk, celebrate! Then move on to the next chunk.

As more of your work gets done, it is natural for progress to accelerate. Additionally, if you are co-creating, accretion (the growing together of separate things or processes) tends to happen, as if by magic.

As your vision refines, it begins to seem natural, more play than work. Tom Jones, a prolific singer/songwriter since the 1960s, made the comment that he has not worked since 1962. He wasn’t joking.

In conclusion, here are the signs of a healthy cycle of action as you activate your vision:

·         The Vision is refined as you learn more

·         Strategy is driven by vision and iteration

·         Tactics pivot constantly

Coming next

A case study on a person with a personal vision that is literally out of this world! Chunks of his vision include founding nearly 2 dozen companies, colleges and foundations. Better yet, we share a vision for large organizations.

Change Agent: Framework, Steps 3 & 4

3. Path to activating the vision

The first project toward your personal vision that you developed in part 1 is (and should be) too big to accomplish all at once. The path to activating the vision starts by breaking it down into smaller pieces. Then you need to develop a strategy.

There seems to be a law of nature called the 80/20 rule. It manifests in a lot of different areas…80 % of your progress comes from 20% of your effort.  20% of your portfolio yields 80% of your profit. 80% of your fun comes from 20% of your leisure time.  20% of your “friends” cause 80% of your grief. Study this phenomenon in your own life.

Chunking is learning to solve problems by leveraging this rule. If you face a project that is incomprehensibly large and complex, break it down into smaller tasks.  One of them (usually a 20% piece) is the key. Discover it. If that chunk is still to large/complex, break that chunk into pieces. Find the key part or chunk. Rinse/repeat until you have a key piece that constitutes a small enough chunk to handle.

If the chunk is will be something that you show the world, it is what Agile terms a minimum viable product (MVP). Your project might create an MVP or it might only be part of one. If the key chunk of the project proves not to be doable, you have just saved an enormous amount of research time. If it proves workable, you have created a plan for accomplishing your goal!

Next, develop a strategy to implement that key chunk. A strategy is how advantages in resources are to be exploited against vulnerabilities in barriers to reach objectives. Notice that strategies contain several elements, objective(s), advantages, resources, barriers, and vulnerabilities. Your objective is to create (activate or manifest) the key chunk.  Barriers are the obstacles that prevent the key chunk from manifesting. Advantages and resources are the tools that you can apply to the vulnerabilities in the barriers that prevent the objective from becoming reality.

Bill Carson has an excellent blog on the topic of strategies.

4. Taking steps along the way.

Start using the now to concentrate on making the identified key chunk a reality. You are now on the path to accomplishing your vision!

Sometimes, you find that there is a difficult obstacle on the path. Focus your effort toward overcoming that obstacle. Occasionally, the issue proves to be insurmountable. It is best to find it as early as possible.

-          You discovered it early, so you have not wasted effort. You have certainly learned something about your vision!

-          Small failures are OK; in fact they tend to provide valuable lessons.

-          This experience gives you valuable knowledge to find an alternate path toward your vision.

-          In some cases, you may need to adjust/reset your vision.

There are some Agile concepts that can be applied to these outcomes.  If some obstacle proves to be insurmountable, you need to pivot.  That means going back to step 1 and rethinking the first project. Pivoting means that you keep one foot firmly planted (i.e. you retain your vision) and move in a different direction with the other foot (i.e. change the project or pick a completely different one).

The second concept is iteration. If executing your strategy produced only got you part of the results that you intended, make small, fast improvements. You share the results of your work with others and seek their feedback. At some point, the improvements will be good enough to declare success.

You might find that what you have accomplished is good enough to allow you to move on to the next step. Caution: Only you have the complete vision.  Feedback is important but only you know if you have accomplished enough to move on. You will know if future steps will satisfy the negative feedback or if you need to continue making iterations until this step in the project is complete.