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The rant here is that we are not prepared. We labour under the delusion that we must ‘ wait our turn<\/em><\/span> ‘…that we must ‘ work our way up the organizational ladder<\/span><\/em>‘. But the decimation of hierarchies, the deconstruction of career ladders, and the redefinition of Work-Of -Value make that a false- nay, a dangerous- assumption<\/em><\/span>. The idea should be to Grasp The Nettle right at the beginning of every job | assignment. We must appreciate the power that comes with being ‘ powerless<\/span><\/em> ‘… and turn every mundane task<\/em><\/span> into a Remarkable (WOW<\/em><\/span>!) Project.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A small aside here if you want to a do a little more deep dive about being powerful or powerless- read here<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Often times in corporate corridors you will hear this refrain ” But I don’t have the power<\/em><\/span> “- (you can’t see my eyes roll here and I am brought up in a manner where expletives are not encouraged, so I stay quiet). But inside I am flipping. You know why. Imagine, Martin Luther King Jr<\/em><\/span> saying, ” Civil Rights is Cool, but I don’t have the power ” or Mahatma Gandhi<\/em><\/span> saying, ” The Brits stink, but I don’t have the power ” .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now, intellectually, I am aware that ” I don’t have the power<\/em><\/span> ” is a fair but sadly ubiquitous representation of the times we are in. Still talk like that gets my dander up. Sorry!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Power of “Powerless” Thinking<\/span><\/em>– Getting things done is not about formal power or official rank. It is all about Passion + Imagination + Persistence<\/em><\/span>. Imagine you have a seriously cool idea. The very worst thing you can do(probably the biggest waste of time in the world) is to try and sell that idea up the ‘ chain of command<\/em><\/span> ‘. Doing so will only officially remind you how ‘ powerless<\/em><\/span> ‘ you are.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, what is the ‘ chain of command<\/em><\/span> ‘? It is a bunch of people<\/em><\/span> who have been promoted for skillfully adhering to ‘ the certified-pure way we do things here<\/em><\/span>‘. In other words, they are the Designated and Appointed Guardians of Yesterday<\/em><\/span>. For your purposes- as a powerless<\/span><\/em> junior type with a Seriously Cool Idea- the ‘chain of command<\/em><\/span>‘ might as well be a chain gang<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What I am encouraging here to do is engage in a direct frontal attack on the Holy Authority of Today’s Bosses<\/em><\/span>. Oops!! The power of the ‘ powerless<\/em><\/span> ‘ lies in what one can call ‘ Boss-free Implementation<\/em><\/span> ‘. In other words: What ‘ they<\/em><\/span> ‘ can’t see, ‘ they<\/em> <\/span>‘ can’t kill.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a lowly person on the organization’s totem pole, powerless<\/em><\/span> to create your own WOW project. But if you look around you will see some non WOW projects that you can re-frame<\/em><\/span> in a way that you remain under the radar for the Boss-Free-Implementation of a Seriously Cool Idea<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Every small project<\/em> <\/span>contains the DNA of the entire enterprise. In sum, you don’t<\/em><\/span> need an Officially Big Project<\/span><\/em> to attack a Very Big Real Opportunity<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Like most things in life, the meaning of a project is all about…attitude<\/em><\/span>. Is it a chore<\/em><\/span>..or is it a chance<\/em><\/span>– a chance to do Something Great<\/em><\/span>? How we answer that question says everything about who we are and how we see the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If I come across as Prescribing a Manual for Radicals<\/em><\/span>, so be it. I am not apologising. The message: Getting Things Done That Fly In The Face Of Conventional Wisdom is a Matter of Energetic and Persistent Community Organising, a Matter of Unearthing and Engaging Passionate Others( who previously viewed themselves<\/em><\/span> as…yes…’powerless<\/em><\/span>‘).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As Roseanne Barr<\/em><\/span> quoted ” Nobody gives you power. You just take it<\/em> <\/span>“.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you are working for an organisation, in a lot of cases, you are feeling ‘ over-ruled ‘. The rant here is that we are not prepared. We labour under the delusion that we must ‘ wait our turn ‘…that we must ‘ work our way up the organizational ladder‘. But the decimation … Continue reading “You are never so powerful as when you are “powerless” !”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1323"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1326,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions\/1326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/The-freedom-of-being-an-amateur-1.jpg\")
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