From RI Director Jeffry Cadorette:
Change is not someone else’s problem, it’s all of our opportunity….
Wherever I go in my travels for our organization, if I ask the question, “If you invented Rotary today would it look like it does now”, the overwhelming response I receive is NO. So, the next logical question would be, “Then what would it look like?” That is the question that the Shaping Rotary’s Future Committee is trying to answer right now.
From hierarchy to structure to governance and to roles, what would it look like? Soon you will see their work product. That work product will be tested in focus groups and then piloted to determine its viability. It’s not as much a problem to solve as it is an opportunity for us all if we want our organization to remain relevant for the decades to come. We can no longer use the answers from yesterday for the questions of tomorrow. You’ve heard me say this before, we need a smaller rearview mirror and a larger windshield. In any moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.
Kakuzo Okakaura suggests, “The art of life is a constant readjustment to our surroundings”. As an organization, we haven’t been very nimble or proficient at readjusting to a world that has changed dramatically and at an ever-faster pace. Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
Whether it is your club, your district, or our organization as a whole, we have a window of opportunity to adapt. No longer can we sit back and expect potential members/participants to find us where we are. They aren’t even looking there. We need to show up where THEY are.
Gary Hamel says, “You can’t build an adaptable organization without adaptable people— and individuals change only when they have to, or when they want to.”
News flash. Many of our members are not all that adaptable. That’s isn’t a criticism, it’s an opportunity. We need to message well the reason change is necessary and the value proposition that accompanies it. Change is not easy It is though attainable.
The Learning Center at rotary.org has an excellent online training module called Leading Change. Go there. Find it. Complete the module. Help us to lead the change that we have to embrace. For over a century we shave survived in spite of ourselves, now we need to thrive because of ourselves. That will take all of us. That will take you.
Change is scary, but the best opportunities are available to us when we are able to move out of our comfort zone. Walk with us over the next years as we honor our past while retooling for the future.
We stand on the shoulders of decades of dedicated Rotarians who got us to where we are. The millions and millions of Rotarians of the next decades will be grateful to you for getting us where we needed to be. They will stand on your shoulders with appreciation for you. They will be grateful they have an organization like Rotary to help them make the world a better place.
We need to Grow Rotary. That will only happen if we are willing to embrace the necessary change that will allow us to scale up. What would Rotary look like if we invented it today? Change is not someone else’s problem, it’s all of our opportunity….
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