What is Our Role in Creating Change - Essay Example

?What is our role in creating change? Change is a process that requires collaboration and cooperation and Wheatley provides the example of how natureorganizes change more effectively. Every element of nature works in unison with each other. Similarly every human being is individually and collectively responsible for change. The change has to first start from the self and then alone can we try to change people and things around us. Our role in creating change starts with the change within us. The mind works based on past experiences and knowledge. The mind is the most powerful agent and if the mind-set can be changed, change is smooth. However, human beings resist change because they fear the unknown. They would like to adhere to what has been the practice and are reluctant to adopt something better. Change within can occur only when we understand the benefits of change, when we have the ability or the knowledge to understand the benefits of change. This requires effective communication. We can bring change to the world through effective communication. Communication encompasses much more than simply talking. It requires the skill, it requires patience to listen. Listening enhances understanding between people; listening enables us to know one another; it helps extend compassion to those in need. Communication should not create rumors or lead to distortion of facts. Meg Wheatley emphasizes on simple honest conversation (pg. 3) where each individual has a chance to speak, the chance of being heard. Communication has the power to move the world, says Meg. This has been witnessed in social movements throughout history. A small group of committed people can change the world. This is evident in Poland’s powerful labor movement when solidarity that started with 9 people grew to 9 million (Wheatley, 2001). Also, an individual mother’s grief led to a national movement under the banner of Mothers Against Drunken Driving (MADD). Working in collaboration and cooperation creates a positive environment. Everyone involved in the work is at ease and gives his/her best. The mind is peaceful and a peaceful mind is creative. Meg draws upon the example of nature and explains how the system functions as one single unit even though it is comprised on so many different elements. Human beings too have the quality to work in harmony but we have somehow fallen off the track. Competition in every field has made people move at a fast pace so as not to be left behind. Meg believes that relationships are all there is (pg. 19). Competition against fellow beings only gives rise to unwanted emotions, feelings of ownership, jealousy and greed. Vitality comes from cooperation and not from competition, she says. An important aspect in change is to respect and acknowledge one another as equals (pg. 29). Traditions and cultures around the world have always promoted peace and harmony. Now that people around the world communicate and interact oftener due to advancements in communication and information technology, people are unable to adjust or be cooperative. We have to learn to understand diversity and the benefits of diversity. We gain diverse experiences which should make us richer and humbler and not arrogant. We should acknowledge diversity in people, in their culture, in their traditions and appreciate them instead of condemning them. Each individual has to take responsibility of the change in the self. We have allowed ourselves to drift like a piece of wood thrown in the water. We need to inculcate discipline. This does not mean to follow rules or abide by regulations. It is the discipline that should come from within and should not be imposed by an external source. Imposed discipline makes one feel suppressed and over time one does not give it any importance. However, discipline that is followed by one’s own self is always towards improvement, regulated and it needs no monitoring. Great changes starts from a small conversations held among people that care and people that are committed to the cause (Waltuck, 2010). Change in the corporations and organizations cannot take place overnight unless change starts at the level of a few individuals. In fact, we make the corporations. Hence change in every individual, in small ways in the society can bring change in the world. Each individual has a passion, a deep interest in some field or the other. If every individual delved deeper one could derive the energy to move ahead. For instance, a musician has a passion for music. He is totally engrossed in it and can even communicate through his music. Such people can bring change in a small section of the society through their music. They can move people, they can get them interested, they can extend compassion and deliver a sense of hope through music. Similarly, there are people deeply involved in human development. They can selflessly give through communicating, through counseling, through guidance. They can attract listeners if they extend understanding and compassion; they can attract listeners through listening to them. When a person is heard, it communicates to him that he is cared for and he is then willing to listen. Instead of finding fault with others, instead of complaining and criticizing, each individual should try to change the self. This can happen if we can feel one with the Existence. Our compassion should not be bound to a few individuals, says Wheatley. We have to learn to look beyond, beyond the organization, beyond the confines of policies and rules. Thus, our role in creating change rests on each individual taking responsibility, on effective communication with people around us. It further depends upon developing the art of listening; we have to stop ignoring each other and instead learn to dream together. We need to overcome fear of each other, fear of the unknown. This can happen when we have confidence in ourselves. We have to learn to evoke the goodness from within for each individual is endowed only with goodness. We have to learn to trust, to forget and forgive. We have to learn to walk ahead and never look back. The responsibility for change lies with every individual. a small group or even a single individual can create change if he/she is committed to the cause. References Waltuck, B.A. 2010 Her Simpler Way: Margaret Wheatley’s “Turning to One Another”. Accessed October 11, 2011 from http://complexified.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/her-simpler-way-margaret-wheatleys-turning-to-one-another/ Wheatley, M.J. 2001 Turning to One Another. Keynote Address: Kansas Health Foundation 2000 Leadership Institute, Spring 2000. Accessed October 11, 2011 from http://www.margaretwheatley.com/articles/turningtooneanother.html Read More