over the last couple of posts, i have walked through elements of the root structure(s) that–when nourished and tended–support individuals and organizations to navigate complex change and bring vision into form. 

the truth is that we need these same structures in life–whether or not we consider ourselves a visionary–because we are co-creating our lives every single moment of every day.

i have shared about some the pieces i have done well in the past … the tangible, tactical, strategic, operational and even human infrastructure(s) i put in place to support an organization going through seismic change at every level.

i have shared about the part i forgot … my own body, mind and soul … my own very real human needs …. as the stress compounded, as i lost my primary means of relational support, as my mental health started to collapse, and i over-compensated by doing more and pushing harder.

but here’s the piece i didn’t know anything about the last time i was building toward vision … i didn’t know anything about the nervous system … the body’s control and communication network … the command center … the brain, spinal cord, and bundles of neurons which are constantly taking in information, making meaning of that information (not always consciously), and mounting a response (with or without your consent). perhaps not surprisingly, the nervous system looks a lot like … roots

so how does the nervous system impact your capacity to hold change and build vision?

your nervous system touches–and often without your conscious awareness controls–everything you see, think, feel, perceive, and do (or don’t do).

and here are just a few examples shared on the context of the framework for managing complex change:

vision + consensus + skills + incentives + resources + action plan = success

we all have parts shaped by our experiences. this is not “pathological” but instead the nature of the mind. every person also has a SELF (the purest expression of essence; untouched by our conditioning). the SELF can and should lead your internal experience and operations. but often our parts are steering the ship. and they don’t always agree with each other as to what can and should be done. if our parts are not on board then we don’t have consensus. 

it is important to mention here that our parts exist for really good reasons. they aren’t resisting just to be difficult. they are resisting because somewhere along the way, they learned that they had to assume a certain role in order to keep us safe. in order to keep us alive. and they are very, very good at their jobs.

without internal consensus among your parts = sabotage

lack of consensus can show up in a lot of different forms:

lack of self-trust or self-confidence

an inability to discern or trust vision (which leads to confusion)

procrastination

self-sabotage

overwhelm

fits and starts

collapse

inaction even though the next step is clear (and at least part of you really wants to take that step)

exhaustion from the internal wrestling match that is happening in your body every single day

and so on

and it doesn’t really matter how much information, knowledge, discipline or willpower you have.

without skills or the ability to consistently deploy those skills = anxiety

you (and your team) might have the skills you need to move the vision forward, but if your nervous system is stuck in high stress, hyper-vigilance, reactivity, or at the point of burnout and collapse,tactical and strategic skills that you know you have may feel extraordinarily difficult or you cannot see clearly when the tactics are no longer working and you need to regroup. 

beyond the tactical and strategic, building vision to life (being a human on the planet) is a relational act whether or not you have a team. and you cannot access your soft skills very well or very consistently when you are being hijacked by your nervous system. skills like: 

organizing and prioritizing work

maintaining focus

accessing memory

regulating and processing emotions

consistent and clear communication

regulating actions and impulses

sustaining alertness

maintaining consistent effort over time

you are going to struggle mightily to deploy those skills well in the relational environment that you are operating within. 

without the ability to feel and integrate incentives = resistance

if your body has long forgotten what it feels like to be happy, to want something, to be excited, or content … if ambivalence is your primary state of being …if you are pretty much numbed out or, in the alternative locked in a state where nothing feels safe or “good enough” … then “incentives” are going to fall flat. if nothing matters, nothing matters.

or you might get to the next thing, mark it off your list, and keep running, never taking the time to integrate what you experienced and learned, never feeling the “benefit” of the work you put in (like exercising without ever getting the endorphin rush at the end … that has happened to me before and it was a bummer), missing every bit of beauty along the way.

i don’t care how much willpower and self-discipline you have, humans don’t “work” that way … at least not in the long term. your circuitry needs positive reinforcement to feed behavior. 

without resources = frustration/demoralization/destruction

just because you don’t know how to resource yourself or don’t trust other people to support you–or are in complete denial that you actually have needs–doesn’t make the needs go away (inconvenient, i know) … it just means you are digging a giant hole in your capacity with no plans to replenish … and eventually that hole might swallow you whole or lead you down a path of destruction. 

in hindsight, i absolutely believe that my hyper-independence, hyper-achievement, unwillingness to rely on others, and capacity to run myself into the wall again and again and again (and call it “persistence”) without asking for resources or support was my nervous system driving the train at max speed toward certain destruction, first without my awareness, and then with my awareness (coupled with resentment and anger) but having no idea how to stop it.

without aligned action = false starts or spinning out

you can take action all damn day and not get anywhere … hustle doesn’t equal impact … you can spin yourself on the hamster wheel in perpetuity and have nothing to show for it … 

when your nervous system is in survival mode, it is incredibly difficult (if not impossible) to discern which actions are the most important. everything action (or potential) inaction, can feel like a life or death scenario. but the whole point of having a plan is to make strategic decisions about how to use your limited resources on any given day, month, or year to increase the likelihood that you actually reach your intended destination.

your nervous system is the root structure 

your nervous system is the root structure that allows you to respond instead of react. to discern when to push, when to rest, and when to quit. when to reassess, realign, and re-resource your efforts and inputs in support of your goals. it is operating behind the scenes all of the time. taking in information, making meaning of that information, and deploying your response. 

but it is also afraid of things that are no longer (life or death) threats in the here and now. telling you stories that aren’t true about who you are and what is possible. and keeping your body locked in various states of being, doing or non-doing that aren’t actually in service to your goals or your thriving. 

there is plenty of external resistance in the world. particularly if you are showing up as a lightbearer (or anyone who claims your own humanity and the humanity of other people). what if your own body and experience weren’t wracked with confusion, sabotage, anxiety, resistance, frustration and false starts? 

what if all of the parts of you could step into integration and alignment? with your nervous system operating on the full spectrum from safety to rest to expansion depending on the here and now (as opposed to old patterns simply repeating over and over again)?

how much more easeful could your experience of life be? how much more easeful could it be to hold and build from vision? even before anyone else (or any other external circumstance) changes**?

**if you are in actual danger right now, your only job is to survive. if your nervous system has already collapsed, your only job is to gently tend to your own body, mind and soul as best as you can until they have been restored enough to have more capacity.**

what i now understand about the framework for managing complex change is that it has multiple layers of application:

organizational/team

individual/personal

nervous system (individual and collective)

the health of each part of the root system affects the health of the entire organism. for good. or for ill. and if we are not tending to the entire root system, then there will be structural weakness undercutting our capacity to hold change and vision (and navigate being human). 

how are you tending to the roots of your vision? of your life? of yourself? of your nervous system?

Potentia is coming. the waitlist is open.

Love, Booth