Tuesday was the first day of a four-session leadership seminar offered by the Aspen Institute that I am participating in. The readings for the seminar opened with a quote from Sun Tzu, which said, “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”
This morning I drove to the iHub in the rain - the co-working space where I’m currently working (thankfully, it has very few people who use it and lots of space!). I had to look beyond the continuous stream of water on my windshield – to focus on where I was headed to make it here safely. It made me think about the role many of us play as leaders (or co-leaders, partners, collaborators) of a company, a team, a household, a community. The role of vision holder. Specifically, the role of a vision holder in the midst of chaos.
There are many instances I can point to where it was the courage to hold onto a vision and course of action as others found their way to meet me that made it possible to get projects completed. We each bring with us a certain view of the world, a certain field of vision, and it can take weeks, months, or until a project is completed for people who believed in the idea, and worked hard to bring it to fruition and contribute in specific ways, to see it in its true form.
At other times, I have been told flat out – you don’t have the experience, what you want to do is not a good idea, I don’t see or believe in your vision. And at that point, I had to make a choice. Change course, or carry on? There are times when I have changed course because there were facets I had not considered, and others when I did not. When I believed in what was possible based on connecting so many different experiences from over the years – even if it could not be immediately articulated because of its complexity. To quote Regina Dugan, "We had to believe in impossible things."
For the October issue of The Voice of Louisville I spoke to Tori Murden McClure, the first woman and American to row solo across the Atlantic (among other inspiring achievements). Tori has said, "The people I want with me in an epic situation are people who think differently or who think independently. We need the artists, the creatives, and the children, to help us to see what we might be missing."
I wonder, how does this resonate with you? How do you find harmony between holding and working toward your vision for the future, and simultaneously working with colleagues, friends, family, or community partners when everyone may not see what you see? It’s in that search for harmony that courage can play a pivotal role. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men and women to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
As we head into the final stretch of 2020, I hope you are finding ways to enact your courage across the areas of life where it is needed most amidst the chaos. There is opportunity to realize new things, even with so much disruption, so much change. The question becomes, are you putting the support and structures in place to make your grand vision a reality?
With gratitude,
Josh
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About: Josh Miller is a queer changemaker, public speaker, photographer, and outdoor explorer. He is the owner of Josh Miller Ventures and the co-founder + CEO of IDEAS xLab—an organization that uses the art of storytelling and community collaboration to impact public health. Miller’s work has been featured by The New York Times, the Aspen Institute, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is a Soros Equality Fellow, received the 2022 Nonprofit Visionary Leader Award from Louisville Business First, and was selected for Business Equality Magazine’s Forty LGBTQ+ Leaders under 40 and Louisville Business First's Forty under 40. Miller is a two-time TEDx speaker and has been described as a "force in our community.” He holds an MBA from Indiana University and an undergraduate degree from Bellarmine University. Previously, he served as an advisor to the Derby Diversity & Business Summit and co-chair for the Louisville Health advisory board’s communications committee.