A Real-life lesson: From struggle to impact

FROM feeling useless 

Three years ago, I was exhausted. Every day I would hurry from one person to another, trying to tackle one person’s expectation after another. I was desperately trying to make a positive impact on the company, the society, and the environment and did not always see the relationship between my day to day efforts and my mission. I was feeling overwhelmed and useless. 

I was willing to make an impact without really knowing how to do so. Our planet and society’s challenges are so monumental and complex. I thought I lacked the competences and legitimacy to turn my ideas into effective actions. I was like a little mouse in an infinite tunnel with too much agitation and danger.

This state was progressively damaging my self-confidence and other parts of my life. Everything was falling apart and I knew that if I did not change, I’d lose it all.

via INNER TRANSFORMATION 

So I started to take a step back and redirected my focus. I took time to strengthen my connections with the people I valued and made cultural and intellectual discoveries. I created a routine to nourish my mind, body and spirit.

I (finally) accepted that the search for perfection is an illusion. Change Management & Sustainability are such large, intrinsic, urgent, complex, evolutive and crucial topics these days that it is easy to lose oneself while trying to make useful contributions, easy to feel like an imposter.

On a personal level, I decided that if I can’t win the battle of plastic packaging in Japan, I could mitigate my impact in using my own bottle and grocery bag, creating my own toothpaste and laundry, using a bioplastic toothbrush and so on. 

At work, I strengthened the connection between my purpose and my actions. I explored what had been my personal and professional journey, how those experiences shaped me and revealed why I was acting the way I was. I formalized what my dreams and hopes were, and my values and talents to realize them. I am now confident that - if stretching ourselves is essential to grow - we can leverage our unique strengths, experiences and passions rather than being obsessed with our weaknesses. This is why I started to believe in my creativity, my vision and my leadership to achieve what I am aiming for. 

TOWARDS IMPACT 

Now, I am happily leading a multicultural team of changemakers. Together we act as catalysts for change. We tend to disrupt the business in a way that benefits both society and the planet.

We have made efforts to fully own our company’s purpose and to clarify our department’s mission in that regard. Most importantly, as we assessed our department's mission, we evaluated how well that aligned with our individual purposes, and how that alignment would help us to use our inner talents to maximize our contribution. The recipe for success? Build a collective strategy that makes all those elements work together in an interconnected and meaningful way.

Spoiler alert. I am not saying that our vision is set in stone, our impact is a given and our days are smooth. We know that achieving this ambition is an endless process that requires commitment and the collective effort of each stakeholder. What’s different now is that we have full clarity on what we are aiming for, how we want to work and engage people to make our common purpose a reality.

One way to act as a catalyst for change was to organize creative business workshops. One way to act as a catalyst for change is to organize creative business workshops. Every year we gather people from all across Asia and diverse backgrounds around one operational project. We take time to learn from business units’ approaches to sustainable development, as well as new corporate tools and insights. Most importantly, we spend time discovering the day to day life of operators and we help them overcome their specific challenges via collective brainstorming. All during the year, our sustainability team then follows up with the site to implement the plans that were drawn from such wide, innovative and deep exchanges. In doing so, we have supported some sites in expanding a wetland, building an educational center or even reframing their carbon footprint analysis.

TIME TO SAVE YOUR ENERGY 

Being aligned with our higher purpose helps effectuate a positive impact and inspire other people to act according to their own approaches and capabilities.

That is why I have made it my mission to support wannabe changemakers - working in organizations just like me - to aim for a meaningful impact. Doing so, they feel aligned with who they are and useful to the society and/or the environment they live in. I empower them in taking advantage of my experience, strategy planning tools, deep inner work, coaching and visualization techniques.

• If you are curious and interested in this kind of support, feel free to reach out! 

• If you find all this information compelling but you are not yet clear on what concrete steps to take, sign up for the newsletter to receive new articles that will hopefully refine your ideas!

Meanwhile, in case you are wondering:

• Your PURPOSE is the reason for which you wake up every day. The driver and magical inner power that makes you want to achieve things in life. In assessing your deep purpose, you answer questions such as WHO, WHY and FOR WHOM.

• The IMPACT is the force of impression of one thing on another. An impactful action has a significant or major effect - either positive or negative - on an audience or on a project. It answers the WHAT, HOW and WHEN of a plan. 

• AIMING for an impact that is meaningful to you is the key to happy success.

To finish, let me ask you: 

• Before reading this, Why do you wake up in the morning? 

• And now, why do you want to wake up in the morning ;)?

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Feel free to share how such an article resonates with you, I’d love to know. Besides, if you want support to find (or refine) your purpose and boost your impact on society and on the planet through professional activities, feel free to contact me in using this form (English / French)

One Thing Every (Wannabe) ChangeMaker Must Understand

Everyone seems eager to “lead change” these days. I keep hearing people say: “ I want to be a changemaker”, “I transform the way our company does business”, “I am a social entrepreneur”, “I support others to go through inner transformation” and so on. 

Yet, when we do experience change - like the mind-altering Covid 19 crisis - it often scares people off. Besides, our ego put aside, the fact remains that change does not wait for us to initiate it. Heraclitus warned: “The only thing that is constant is change”.

So, what’s about “changemaker” label that makes it so sexy? Who’s a “changemaker”? Can we even become one? How, so? All these answers lie within ONE simple truth. 

FINDING MEANING 

What does “changemaker” mean? 

Funny enough, when I looked at the Merriam-Webster dictionary, I found a single definition: “a device that mechanically supplies change in coins of desired denominations upon the operation of the proper levers or keys”. I guess this is not what you had in mind. 

Yet, it gives us some clues. It implies a process of transformation, a shift from one original state to a desired one thanks to the action of an external subject and the use of resources. One may then wonder if every person’s thought or action - whether writing, speaking, cooking or working - makes him or her a changemaker. After all, everything done by an individual is, by itself, a unique way of creating a reality.

Is “changemaker” just another way to speak about any human being? 

Well…. Yes and no.“Changemaker” is a term coined by Ashoka organization as “ anyone who is taking creative action to solve a social problem”:

• The label “changemaker” could apply to someone like Esther Duflo (Economic Nobel Prize) recognized for her approach to alleviating global poverty; or members of inclusive digital schools like Simplon; or students who participated in the global green strikes; or corporate sustainability workers who walk the talk of the Global Compact; or disadvantaged people who are developing their own innovative solutions and so many others.

• No barriers of any kind - neither geographical, social, economic, political, gender nor age-based - can hinder someone from being a changemaker.

Yet, not everyone is a changemaker. So, how does one acquire this status? Aiming at solving a worldwide issue (either social, environmental, or economical) for the common good is a first “selection criteria”. Turning ideas into action - despite the many hurdles along the way - is another. The capacity to be disruptive in striving for a future goal is a third attribute.

I could continue on and on with many other characteristics, categories and learning methods. Is that what really matters? 

look into YOURSELF to activate your power 

Everyone has the possibility to be a changemaker. Thanks to Aristotle, we may understand that those that become changemakers are simply turning this option (a “potentiality”) into a reality (an “actuality”). Everyone has the inner power to use his/her story, strengths, emotions and intelligence to build and/or amplify smarts sustainable solutions for the world. What really matters is the answer to “what changemaker do I want to be?”.

Confused? Let’s break it down. 

• It’s a Sunday afternoon. A 30 year-old corporate women looks through the window: spring is coming, the sun is shining, it’s a new start. She has worked hard to figure out she desired to move from auditing to human resources. She will leverage diversity for individuals’ creativity and well-being to boost the company’s global impact. She is a changemaker in “power” (“potentiality”). 

• Months go by. It’s September. She is leading an internal survey to understand how to disrupt the system and make diversity a reality within her organization. She is, now and in real life, a changemaker (“actuality”). 

Bottom line: YOU CAN and YOU DESERVE to actualize your inner power to contribute to society and the environment in your own way. 

actualizing your change

a simple Tool 

You may then wonder where to start or even how to reconnect to this inner power. Here is a simple approach that may help you to get the ball rolling. 

First, let me ask you: are you fully satisfied with your mission and impact at work? 

• If yes, great! I invite you to think about what is working so well and what can be done to boost your impact and excitement.

• If you’re like “well… I like (e.g my job or company or colleagues …) but I am (eg. less motivated, confused on the value of my contribution…), you may want to ask yourself if the frustration and/or the desire for a better situation is strong enough to overcome your fears (yes we all have many) and make a change.

• If it’s a clear “I am lost and it’s time for me to change.”Celebrate your honesty and courage as it is a KEY step!

Now: don’t worry - dare greatly. Becoming the changemaker you want to be (even if you don’t really know what it means) is possible... It’s a great and endless journey that evolves and gets refined over time. It simply takes patience, faith, personal efforts, and care. 

How to start? Take a few minutes, think back over the past 1 to 2 months and ask yourself: 

• What activities did I love doing? Why? 

• When did I feel useful or proud? Why? 

• What did I hate or dislike doing? Why? 

• Looking at all that, what do you learn? 

Tips: I recommend you to write and your notes for later. If it can motivate you, send me your answers. I would love to read them!

The Mantra

““The only thing you are sure you won’t succeed in is in the one you don’t try” - Paul-Émile Victor, French ethnologist ”

Feel free to share how such an article resonates with you, I’d love to know. Besides, if you want support to find (or refine) your purpose and boost your impact on society and on the planet through professional activities, feel free to contact me in using this form (English / French)