A few days ago I sat in on a meeting where a new leader took over a major project – that the former leader clearly could not let go. The project pace slowed to grinding halts each time the past president raised another objection or silly question. 
Nothing seemed to please him, as he watched his pet project careen off the road he’d paved well for years. The new leader’s vision was lost for the evening, as we all tried to maintain the older man’s dignity in tact, while edging a new leader’s forward.
What would you do?
The whole scene reminded me that regardless of how passionately we hold onto visions … or how well we lead projects –a time comes to let go as a way to move the vision forward with new talent.
Why then do people hold on when it’s clearly time to pass on a project?
It’s more innate than you might realize. Why so? The human brain wires for regular patterns each time we repeat any actions. Can you see how it works? For some people - passion is almost hard wired into their basal ganglia after a time so that they almost grow into the vision they hold. And hebbian habits are hard to break! Letting go, often leaves a passionate person feeling adrift - as vulnerable as a small vessel adrift in an open sea - with storms brewing.
Good news though, is that the human brain’s plasticity rewires people for high performance results and a MITA approach, for instance would be to …
1. Question to see what we do well that somebody needs. One man I know retired and took up painting. To his surprise, people praised his work and many assumed he’d painted all his life. Eventually he traveled to
2. Target specific steps toward a new vision for our strengths. People find even more success when they start taking small steps even before leaving a work that consumed them.
3. Expect concrete results that could be listed on the back of your business card. Imagine what the end project of your new venture will look like and the mental images will motivate you to take daily steps in the direction of a new dream.
4. Move your full range of talents into action and grow your multiple intelligences. Some of these will be rather highly developed and other capabilities will amaze you as you engage your full range of intelligences.
5. Reflect daily on … “Where to from here?" .. and create new agenda for tomorrow. Relax, walk, daydream, play, share your ideas with friends and plan the next step forward. The key is to map out a new pathway toward your expectation before you begin another new day.
The amazing plasticity in your brain awaits to rewire electricity for your next MITA vision long before the old project vanishes. The key is to set plans in motion sooner. If somebody else replaced what you love to do most today – what would you begin to develop tomorrow?
Getting a new vision is a great target for Boomers. Lifelong learning is the willingness to grow and change. Yesterday at Rotary, a state archivist spoke about his work. Turned out that he loves oral history and is doing his part to preserve that along with other important documents many put into a box in the basement.
He did this after retiring from thirty years of teaching history. He's very much alive and full of new vision. This is the model we need so that we don't fall into the trap that our "first love" is unchanging and that we need to control what others after us would choose to do.
Posted by: Robyn McMaster | July 12, 2007 8:26 AM | Permalink to Comment