The Power of Small Steps

Ive been thinking a lot about the wisdom of small steps lately, especially when engaged in big change. Over the past months, I’ve had the privilege to work with a number of clients involved in big change processes. Some of them are starting a new community from the ground up, others are working to transform their organizations. In all cases, they need to rely on their community of colleagues and stakeholders to make these changes. All of them have inspiring visions and a lot of passion for the changes they want to realize. This drive, vision, and desire has brought with it great persistence and also great frustration. The frustration comes from things not going as smoothly or as quickly as they would like. It comes from other people not always being as passionate as they are, or having a different pace, usually one that in their perception is way slower than they want.

Part of my job in these cases is to remind people to keep their eyes on the small steps that are made in the direction of their vision. This is not as easy in a world where “results” are given more importance than the process of how you got to them. We seem to be living in a world live in a world of endless heroes journeys and constant Ted Talks that all end in success, There is much attention is paid to big wins, and making a big impact. This is of course important and valuable. The thing is for sustainable change to really be…