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On Being a Disruptive Change Maker

We are experiencing what some are calling the great unraveling as we find the systems and structures (and the thinking that created them) now woefully inadequate for the creation and sustainability of a world that works for everyone.  As change makers – coaches, leaders, consultants – we know that the people we serve are struggling with the chaos, with the uncertainty, with an increasing sense of disconnection, with resignation and a feeling of helplessness, and ultimately with the fear that not-knowing brings.  We aren’t immune to the struggle either.

As someone who cares about being in service to those suffering and making positive impact on self, others and the world, you intuitively or experientially know that so much more is possible in the work we do. There are no simple problems left to address and the issues we, and those we serve, are facing require us to be fully resourced – Emotionally, Physically, Mentally and Spiritually.  We can no longer rely on our skill sets and good intentions. We must do the deeper work needed for ourselves so that the work we do with others goes well beyond supporting them to achieve what they want. We are called to consciously witness and be fully present to their suffering and to support them to live into the highest expression of what’s possible, all for the sake of a world that works for everyone and not just the few.

We need conscious organizations and conscious leaders that can consider the needs of stakeholders such as communities, nations and even the planet and not just the shareholders, clients, and employees.  We need conscious change makers that can disrupt the embedded fiction in our individual and collective belief systems and root out the unexamined premises  that are limiting what’s possible.  We need a new narrative about ourselves and our place in/as the cosmos, new practices, and a new paradigm to see what we haven’t been able to before. 

Simply put, we change makers need to move towards a quantum view of change making. 

While not easy to define, when I say ‘quantum’, I’m pointing to the fact that individuals and organizations are complex, adaptive systems that are in constant dialogue with the environment.  The change maker can sense/know/have awareness of their inner reality as it interplays with exterior reality. The quantum view (as opposed to the Newtonian world view of a mechanistic universe, structured by order and rationality, and an aim of predictability) has us change makers consider that:

We live in a ‘participative’ universe where I participate in the creation of reality as opposed to responding or reacting to a fixed reality that’s ‘out there’.  Disrupting the old world view supports you and those you work with in becoming conscious co-creators of reality.

Everything is connected to everything else.  We are individuals and, at the same time, part of greater and greater collectives and wholes that are deeply interconnected and constantly evolving and emerging.  Separation is a false belief that sources much of the suffering we are experiencing.

YOU are the vehicle or form through which consciousness manifests.  You don’t “have” a body (Newtonian world view); what you call your body is a vehicle or form through which consciousness manifests and from which you generate your reality and take action. Your vehicle, with which to experience the world and do your best change work, requires refinement and attunement.  Leaving the body out of change making – for yourself or those you work with - severely limits what is possible.

Your work is in service of getting yourself (and your clients) to the open, unlimited space of the awakened heart and mind and to tap into the potentialities of everything that could be.

As a disruptive change maker, you are a co-creative partner and force in the evolution of consciousness itself.  Holding change as anything less will only get us more of the same. Collectively, we need to challenge our world view, our thinking, and our beliefs to be able to address the concerns that aren’t being taken care of in other ways. We have an opportunity to be the ushers, guides, and mid-wives of the new story of being human and create practices that can shift the ground upon which we stand.  Only then can we do the same for others.  Our work is nothing less than disrupting the entrenched fiction we lead, coach and live by. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terrie LUPBERGER
ICF Master Certified Coach

An executive coach and talent developer for leaders, managers and teams worldwide, her international experience, executive coaching skills and unique tool set, plus 20 years of experience as a CEO and Senior Executive give her and her team a unique advantage and vantage point in supporting business professionals from all walks of life.  www.TerrieLupberger.com