The third message is, To make real change in an organization, you have to align your intellectual power with the civil authority. The civil authority in a company is its power source. It's nice to say that knowledge is power, but of course that's a bunch of hooey! Power is power. And as a change agent, the power you've got is the power of new ideas--which is much more abstract and a lot less actionable than the power of the civil authority.
So how do you claim the power it takes to move your ideas into the company? You have to get inside the psyche of the individuals who hold the civil authority. You have to accept their authority and then understand how to move them beyond where they are. I don't deny that's a very difficult task, because, once again, it brings us back to trust: You have to trust people; you have to put your life in the hands of someone else.
And that leads to the last message: The flip side of trust is fear--which is something we've all got to learn to live with. I look at all the things that we talk about in terms of the new economy, and it's just plain scary. It's scary every day. You're on a tightrope. And there are people at either end, holding the damn thing for you. They're your investors, your coworkers, your suppliers.
And the problem is, you don't know any of them well enough not to be afraid. And you know what? You have not choice other than to live with it. You have to embrace the fear. Every CEO I know is afraid every day, but still they push on. That's simply part of the big picture: It's okay to be afraid, even if it doesn't always feel that great.
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