Ignite your flame of Activated Hope
This blog follows on from our last blog, where we summarised three key lessons from The Catalyst’s Way, Professor Chellie Spiller’s latest book – available at no cost here.
As discussed in that blog, a key to being an effective catalyst is the ability to ‘Apply Activated Hope’ – a sense that taking purposeful action will change outcomes and make a positive impact by creating sustainable wealth and wellbeing. The following insights from The Catalyst’s Way have been handpicked by Chellie to provide further value and insight to leaders. Taking the steps below will help you ignite powerful change in your organisations, communities and yourself. The people mentioned below are Fellows of the Atlantic Institute profiled in the companion guide, The Catalyst’s Way – Foundational Storytellers, which is also available for download at the link above.
Activated Hope – Key Insights
Take time to connect to the bigger picture. Look at the trails of your life. Sometimes when we look back, we get a sense of perspective and insight that we may not have had at the time. We can get so embroiled in day-to-day issues that we forget to connect with the bigger picture. Boyd Broughton, director of a significant tribal healthcare service in New Zealand that focuses on family well-being, encourages his team to see beyond the present circumstances to a future state. Boyd reminds his staff to put out fires as quickly as possible, and to “take time to look up at the stars and imagine what this whānau [family] can achieve once the fires are put out.”
What really matters to you? Rekindle your purpose. Rather than thinking about an issue, think about what you value in the way that you are a catalyst, and a leader. Your flame of activated hope needs air to stay alight. For example, Durkhanai Ayubi, an Afghan food expert and prize-winning cookbook author, values freedom and independence to pursue what she truly believes in. She knew she needed to avoid being “made impotent by the structures of organisation and other people’s expectations of what you can and can’t say and what you can and can’t do.” While her path has involved immense sacrifice, it has also brought incredible outcomes. Durkhanai says,“The real power and transformative groundwork happen when you follow your truths and sense of what you should be doing. And do it in a way that’s quite uncompromising.”
Imagine alternative futures and find ways to bring them into being. Having a clear vision ensures a desired future already has a place in the world, even when the gap between promise and reality seems vast. From a Pacific Oceanic wayfinding perspective, vision is described as ‘calling the island to you’. It involves holding a strong intention of the destination. By adjusting to signs in the world, oceanic navigators bring the island to themselves. You can read more about this in the book Wayfinding Leadership co-authored by Chellie.
Vision and purpose are entwined. Vision imbues a sense of perpetuity, and purpose is a sense of immediacy. Catalysts are in service of a purpose that will bring about change. Some catalysts serve through education, coaching, and mentoring to equip other activists with the tools they need, while they all serve in support of a better community and world. Vision and purpose are about what matters and the change we wish to see.
Purpose provides orientation, energises momentum, and propels agency. Being clear about how you will harness your skills and talents is a dimension of purpose: for example, as a doctor, writer, poet, artist, scientist, relationship builder, healer, educator, speaker, and advocate. Cultivating these skills is a necessary part of lifelong learning. Another essential component of a catalyst’s purpose is who they are serving.
Values must become action. Values illuminate a rich seam of knowledge code and are portals to a worldview that guides people to act concordantly to what they believe in and wish to uphold. Values support relationships. Values need to be made conscious and practised contextually. The Arabic word “wasta” emphasises connections, and Indigenous value systems teach us how to be in relationship with ourselves, each other, and ecologies. Values are not only portals to a worldview but also to a calling about what we envision and how we carry ourselves. They are personal, not prescriptive, and are markers that orient us to change. A person may work more on courage at one point in their life than at others, with the result that it becomes easier for them to speak out. Whilst working on courage may always be present, another value may arise more strongly, such as navigating the complexities of empathy. Hence practising values are an interplay, not a static state.
Find your zenith value and stick to it. A zenith value is like a guiding star that we align all aspects of our life to. Sam Hughes recalls a moment during his first job interview as a young man when he got asked what his best quality was. He says it was loyalty – in his case, loyalty to his brothers who had been accused of a crime. As Founder and Chair of Nōna Te Ao Trust, which provides a pathway for rural Māori students into tertiary and vocational opportunities, Sam knows what it means to hold steadfast to a zenith value.
Establish your circle of strength. Around the catalyst are people who hold the catalyst like a container - families, friends, and colleagues that steadfastly support their work. Catalysts need participative spaces that are trust-based, a place of respite, care, and empathy, and a safe arena to learn new skills. They need a space where courageous conversations are encouraged, contestations may arise, and provocations can be laid down, but these are not from a place of judgement or projection. Curiosity about our experience and the capacity to inquire into our habits and assumptions is essential.
Our next blog will further explore the Chamber of Discomfort.
