Epilogue: Be an Agent of Hope in a Fearful World

This book is filled with steps, strategies, and stories that will help your group face tough issues and produce great results, but the most important part of the process is you. How will you choose to respond to the opportunities? Will you allow yourself to get caught up in the fear-filled dynamics of divisive debates, or will you free your hopeful self? These are simple questions, but the answers can be difficult.

In the heat of the moment, under pressure to perform, all of us can revert to the self-protective measures hardwired into our psyches. Occasionally, threats to life and core interests warrant the adrenaline rush of the fight-or-flight response. But, more often, circumstances don't require something that drastic.

Make the Right Choice to Make a Big Difference

People and situations push our buttons every day. But we can choose individually and collectively to escape from that trap.

It is up to you to recognize the signs within yourself and your colleagues that fear-filled dynamics are at work in your organization. You can choose the ten-step process and the obstacle-overcoming strategies outlined in this book to realize great results that support the hopes you share. Your choice will make a big difference to your organization's bottom line and to your personal well-being.

Fear and greed frequently prompt people to try to control outcomes in order to satisfy their preformed objectives. A self-centered approach like this can distract a group from recognizing new opportunities that can benefit everyone in more fulfilling ways.

Central to the ability to make good decisions on difficult issues is the need to let go of your expectations and personal agenda. In her highly acclaimed book, Leadership and the New Science—Learning about Organization from an Orderly Universe (Berrett-Koehler, 1992), Meg Wheatley finds encouragement for relaxing the desire to control outcomes. She writes, "In many [physical] systems, scientists now understand that order and conformity and shape are created not by complex controls, but by the presence of a few guiding formulae or principles." Similarly, human organizations can use the positive spirit alive within them to guide their work in more natural and fulfilling ways.