I’ve been reading a bit lately from this book, Rebels at Work: A Handbook for Leading Change from Within. I met Lois Kelly, one of the authors, at ALIA last year in Tacoma, Washington. My partner Teresa and I were offering a workshop on Strategic Mischief-Making.
Lois asked to interview me later this summer. She is researching how to lead change through hosting conversations around important questions. I don’t know if will stick, but I love her working title, “Be a Badass, Good-Hearted Change Agent: Getting Real About Leading Change.”
I’m drawn to the notion of “rebel.” I think I’ve always been the kind of human that believes there is another way. Always. There is always choice. I can’t help but think that way. It’s frustratingly confining when I find myself in an environment that has lost sight of this. Thus, some of the value I add is awareness and practices to restore choice. I recognize that I’m part rebel, good. I recognize, also, that my inner rebel is fiercely committed to evolution of choice.
Lois and her co-auther Carmen Medina offer a chart of distinctions between “good and bad rebels.” I know it isn’t that simple. I never feel that it is. I don’t think they do either. But the chart is invitation to some very good and important conversations about some qualities that are pretty bad-assed good, no?
Thanks Lois and Carmen for your work.