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Nothing happens until somebody feels something

by | Nov 3, 2018 | Open Leadership

nothing happens until somebody feels something

My favourite business artist is Hugh McLeod, @hughcards on Twitter. Love this one.

Change comes from feelings, not rationality.

Feelings connect us to why we would choose to change.

“When you get clear on the WHY, the HOW is easy”

I see organisational change so often approached as a rational and structured process.

That is clearly part of it, but it will only drive full value if you have the patience to first slow down, to take time to allow everyone to connect to what change does and will feel like.

This is often an uncomfortable space. After all, businesses don’t “do” feelings, or if they do, it is often at a surface level.

However, the deeper you can connect to feelings, brave though that is, the faster you can accelerate through the change implementation, as everyone is aligned and connected to WHY they are part of that change.

“When you get clear on the WHY, the HOW is easy”

Some more on how we are driven by feelings and not rationale.

Last year I wrote a post: “Cogito Ergo Sum, or Sentio Ergo Sum ?“, which began:

Cogito Ergo Sum – I think, therefore I am

Or

Sentio Ergo Sum – I feel therefore I am

Are we rational beings driven by our thoughts, or are we led by our feelings?

If the latter, consider this for a moment. Where in our education system are our children taught to listen to and learn from their feelings? At what age do we, as adults, start to focus on our own self-knowledge and self-awareness ?”

That post then includes three video clips of intense emotional power as examples of what drives us.

Today I share another clip, this time of my all time favourite jazz musician, Oscar Peterson, at the height of his powers. His piano solo towards the end of this track is beyond beautiful, the level of mastery gives me goosebumps every time I hear it (and I’ve listened to this track hundreds of time). To me when we experience siuch beauty we can recognise that we humans are driven by feelings over thoughts.