The Monday memo is food for thought to fuel your week.
Hi everyone,
I’ve seen this happen more than once: Someone spends years building a company, a town, a community: some meaningful combination of systems, relationships, and energy. Somehow it all works and it all works extremely well. The system has momentum, energy, a rhythm that has developed organically.
The system works so well that the it gets sold, or merged with something bigger, or there’s simply a handoff from one generation to the next.
Whatever the reason, there’s a new generation of leaders. They see inefficiencies and want to optimize, so they start cutting things without understanding how those pieces work together. They don’t realize that they are unhitching the engine from the train.
When you first start losing momentum, it’s almost imperceptible. For a while, the train keeps rolling on the energy it already had. But gradually, it slows down. What took years to build takes only months to lose.
When you come across a problem, especially when you are new to a situation, you have the advantage of bringing fresh eyes; you can see things in new ways, which can lead to dramatic insights and breakthroughs. It can be tempting to see what’s wrong and immediately want to tear the whole thing down, rebuild from zero, and impose your vision on the situation.
But your fresh eyes also come with a blind spot. In addition to the problem, there are also things that are working: some existing momentum you can harness, some center of gravity you can work with instead of against. And the things that are working are often harder to see than the things that are broken.
The current situation of any system — whatever it is — already has some energy and momentum. Your team has existing rhythms. Your creative project has a natural shape it wants to take. Your relationships have patterns of energy that flow between you and others.
In other words you’re never really starting from scratch. You’re starting with what is.
Exercise.
This week, instead of pushing against something that feels stuck or difficult, try working with what’s already there.
Pick one situation where you’ve been pushing for an outcome and feeling resistance. Maybe it’s a conversation that keeps going in circles, a project that feels like you’re swimming against the current, or a habit you’ve been trying to force into your life.
Step back and study the existing forces at play. What’s the natural momentum? Where is there already energy? What wants to happen if you stop pushing so hard? What’s emerging? What is the system trying to become?
Instead of opposing the current, see if you can redirect it. Instead of fighting against the grain, find where the grain naturally wants to split.
You might be surprised how much easier things become when you stop trying to be the bulldozer and start being the river that finds its way around the rock.
See what happens.
Pop-up recap
We had about 20 people show up for our potluck pop-up on Saturday. A few people joined us from out of town. Claire took the train down from Seattle. Brian and Sarah popped in from Olympia. We even had someone pop in who is visiting Portland from Berlin! We opened a portal for members and Lorne was kind enough to beam in from England. It was cool to see you Lorne!
More information for members is below the fold.👇