Honoring Possibility

A leader’s job is ultimately to create change.

Change within an organization, inspiring change within another person, or changing the way we see something.

Change is scary. There are no guarantees, and the process of creating change has the potential to expose just how much we don’t know.

So we have to choose what we will honor: possibility or safety.

If we honor safety we already know the outcome. Things stay the same, and we save ourselves the pain of getting it wrong.

If we honor possibility, we might get it wrong but we avoid a deeper pain—the pain that comes from not doing anything at all.

Getting it wrong is not the end. Things still move forward when we get it wrong, and getting it wrong gives us the best chance of being able to get it right.